Position in chronology
RA 009, 049 SA 127
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P127461.
Transliteration
1(u) la2 1(disz) udu 1(disz) u8 3(disz) sila4 2(disz) ud5 2(disz) sila4 ga ba-usz2 u4 2(u) 4(disz)-kam ki szul-gi-a-a-mu-ta szul-gi-iri-mu szu ba-ti iti ezem-me-ki-gal2 mu en-mah-gal-an-na en nanna ba-hun 1(u) 7(disz) udu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — RA 009, 049 SA 127. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Amar-Suen y5 — En-maḫgalanna en-priest of Nanna installed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Couvent Sainte-Anne, Jerusalem (P127461) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P127461..
Related tablets
Related sources
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.