Position in chronology
ArOr 62, 243 I 873
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P101891.
Transliteration
2/3(disz) ma-na la2 1(u) sze ku3 zu2-lum ki ku3-ga-ni#-ta a-kal-la szu ba-ti giri3 lugal-ezem mu us2-sa e2 puzur4-da-gan ba-du3 mu us2-sa-bi a-kal-la dub-sar dumu ur-nigar szusz3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — ArOr 62, 243 I 873. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic (P101891) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P101891..
Related tablets
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.