Position in chronology
AnOr 07, 046
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P101341.
Transliteration
[n] gu4 [niga] ki puzur4-en-lil2-ta ur-ku3-nun-na i3-dab5 iti ezem-mah mu e2 szara2 umma# ba-du3 szu-suen lugal kal-ga lugal uri5-ma lugal an-ub-da limmu2-ba ur-ku3-nun-na dub-sar dumu lu2-nin-gir2-su kuruszda ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AnOr 07, 046. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P101341) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P101341..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.