Position in chronology
SumRecDreh 15
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P130512.
Transliteration
3(u) udu niga sa2-du11 a-bi2-si2-im-ti u4 1(disz)-kam nu-hi-dingir sukkal maszkim ki szul-gi-a-a-mu-ta ba-zi iti ezem-nin-a-zu mu amar-suen lugal-e ur-bi2-lum mu-hul 3(u)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SumRecDreh 15. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Amar-Suen y2 — Urbilum destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: private: anonymous, New York, New York, USA (P130512) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P130512..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.