Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/2, pl. 134, 1971-324
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P248838.
Transliteration
[x] 2(barig) 3(ban2) sze gur lugal sze kasz ge6-ge6 3(asz) gur sze kasz saga sa2-du11 szara2 e2-szu-tum-ta ki ARAD2-ta nig2-ba igi-kar2 szu ti iti sig4-i3-szub-ba-ga2-ra iti sze-kar-ra-gal2-la# mu us2-sa si-mu-ru#-um# lu-lu-bu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAICAB 1/2, pl. 134, 1971-324. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P248838) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P248838..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.