Position in chronology
NYPL 258
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122796.
Transliteration
1(u) sze gur sza3-gal sipa ansze szaganx(AMA)-sze3 inim sukkal-mah-ta ki ka-guru7-ta szesz-kal-la dumu an-ne2 nu-banda3-ke4 szu ba-ti iti diri mu amar-suen lugal-e sza-asz-ru mu-hul szesz-kal-la# dub-sar dumu an-ne2 nu-banda3#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NYPL 258. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Amar-Suen y1 — Amar-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: New York Public Library, New York, New York, USA (P122796) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122796..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.