Position in chronology
Aleppo 243
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P100575.
Transliteration
2(u) gurusz u4 2(disz)-sze3 a-sza3 la2-tur sze gurx(|SZE.KIN|)-a ugula lu2-dingir-ra kiszib3 ur-szul-gi-ra iti sze-sag11-ku5 mu us2-sa si-mu-[ru]-um lu-lu-bu-um a-ra2 1(u) la2 1(disz@t)-kam ba-hul ur-[dun] [dub]-sar# [dumu da-da]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Aleppo 243. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: National Museum of Syria, Aleppo, Syria (P100575) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P100575..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.