Position in chronology
Princeton 2, 227
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P201225.
Transliteration
sze gur lugal la2-ia3 su-ga ur-ba-ba6 dumu na-silim e2-a-kun elam-e-ne-ta 8(asz) 4(barig) gur la2-ia3 su-ga ur-ba-ba6 dumu ur-li ki-tusz-da-sal4?-la-ta gur zabar-ta kiszib3 ur-nin-mar-ka sze sanga nin-mar-ka giri3 nig2-u2-rum ra2-gaba iti gu4-ra2-bi2-mu2 mu amar-suen lugal ur-nin-mar dub-sar dumu nam-ha-ni
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Princeton 2, 227. 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: Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, USA (P201225) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P201225..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.