Position in chronology
TCNU 642
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P135488.
Transliteration
1(disz) eme-sig ma2 1(asz) gur sze-gin2 a-kal-la-ta giri3 ur-sila-luh mar-sa-asz kiszib3 nig2-lagar-e iti e2-iti-6(disz) mu en-mah-gal-an-na en nanna ba-hun-ga2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TCNU 642. 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: Museo di Antichità di Torino, Turin, Italy (P135488) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P135488..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.