Position in chronology
AnOr 07, 380-10
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P101684.
Transliteration
[...] ninda [...] sza3#-gal kas4 gaba-ta# [bala-a] [giri3 ...] [a]-hu-ni sukkal KA [us2-sa] [szunigin] 1(disz) kasz dida saga [...] [szunigin] 1(disz) kasz dida du [...] [szunigin] 1(ban2) kasz saga szunigin 1/2(disz) sila3? [naga] [szunigin] x x 4(disz) [x] sila3 ninda szunigin 1/2(disz) sila3# i3 [szunigin x ku6] szunigin 2(disz) sa szum2#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AnOr 07, 380-10. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P101684) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P101684..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.