Position in chronology
AnOr 07, 008
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P101303.
Transliteration
2(gesz2) ir7 a2 gesz-gar-ra nu-kiri6 iti-ta u4 5(disz) ba-ra-zal 1(gesz2) 2(u) tu-gur4 ba-gu-um muszen-du3 iti-ta u4 1(u) ba-ra-zal mu-kux(DU) szul-gi-si2-im-tum a2-bi2-la-tum i3-dab5 iti a2-ki-ti mu si-mu-ru-um lu-lu-bu a-ra2 1(u) la2 1(disz)-kam-asz ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AnOr 07, 008. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P101303) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P101303..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.