Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/1, pl. 018, 1911-144
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P142657.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(u) 6(disz) gurusz hun-ga2 gi zex(SIG7)-a 1(u) 2(disz) sar-ta# 1(u) 2(disz) 1/2(disz) gurusz gi kesz2-ra2 a-sza3 gi-apin-ku5-ra2 szuku ensi2-ka ugula szu-ma-am3 gurum2 u4 1(u) 1(disz)-kam iti e2-iti-6(disz)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAICAB 1/1, pl. 018, 1911-144. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P142657) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P142657..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.