Position in chronology
Aegyptus 19, 238 09
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P100231.
Transliteration
7(disz) u8 3(disz) ud5 szu-gid2 e2-muhaldim mu gar3-du-e-ne-sze3 ARAD2-mu maszkim sza3 a-sza3 amar-suen-engar-en-lil2-la2 u4 1(u) 7(disz)-kam ki du11-ga-ta ba-zi giri3 nu-ur2-suen dub-sar iti masz-da3-gu7 mu en nanna kar-zi-da ba-hun 1(u)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Aegyptus 19, 238 09. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Museo di Antichità di Torino, Turin, Italy (P100231) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P100231..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.