Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/2, pl. 134, 1971-327
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P248841.
Transliteration
1(ban2) [x] sila3# i3-gesz [x]-x-[x]-ge#-si [...] tu-ra ugula ur-nin-tu ki# szara2-kam#-ta kiszib3 lu2#-kal-la i3-ba geme2 dumu-ka ga2-ga2#-dam iti sze-sag11-ku5 mu us2-sa bad3 mar-tu mu# us2-[sa-a]-bi# lu2-kal-la dub-sar dumu ur-e11-e
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAICAB 1/2, pl. 134, 1971-327. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P248841) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P248841..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.