Position in chronology
AnOr 07, 036
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P101331.
Transliteration
[...] udu bar-gal2 1(u) 3(disz) masz2-gal [x] udu bar-gal2 [...] masz2-gal [...] i3-dab5 5(disz) udu 2(disz) masz2-gal e2 nin-tu-sze3? u4 3(u) la2 1(disz)-kam kiszib3 ur-iszkur iti [ezem]-szu-suen mu si-ma-num2 ba-hul ur-iszkur dub-sar dumu la-ni-a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AnOr 07, 036. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P101331) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P101331..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.