Position in chronology
AnOr 07, 149
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P101444.
Transliteration
2(disz) udu niga 2(disz) u8 niga 1(disz) sila4 u-bar-um 2(disz) sila4 ensi2 nibru 2(disz) sila4 zabar-dab5 1(disz) sila4 1(disz) masz2 en inanna mu-kux(DU) iti szu-esz5-sza mu si-mu-ru-um u3 lu-lu-bu a-ra2 1(u) la2 1(disz)-kam-ma-asz ba-hul u4 2(u) 8(disz)-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AnOr 07, 149. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P101444) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P101444..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.