Position in chronology
AnOr 07, 292
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P101587.
Transliteration
1(disz) szesz-kal-la dumu ba-al-t,u2-a tu-ra iti 6(disz)-sze3 1(disz) lugal-ma2-gur8-re () iti 8(disz)-sze3 1(disz)# lu2#-[...] [() iti n(disz)-sze3] [...] iti szu#?-[numun] ugula bi x x x mu ku3 gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2 ur-e2-mah dub-[sar] dumu lugal-ku3#-[ga-ni]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AnOr 07, 292. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P101587) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P101587..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.