Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/3, pl. 236, Bod S 249
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P249156.
Transliteration
6(asz) sze sumun gur sze ur5-ra x x [...] sza3 sze bar-ta gal2-la ki-su7 sahar-u2-u2-ta ki lugal-ku3-zu-ta da-da nu-banda3-gu4 szu ba-ti iti# pa4-u2-e mu us2-sa ki-masz ba-hul da-da nu-banda3-gu4 ()
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAICAB 1/3, pl. 236, Bod S 249. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P249156) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P249156..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.