Position in chronology
ASJ 09, 265 65
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P102341.
Transliteration
5(disz) sila4 3(disz) masz2 ki a-ba-en-lil2-gin7-ta du11-ga i3-dab5 iti ezem-me-ki-gal2 mu e2 szara2 umma-ka ba-du3 ur-mes dumu la-na kuruszda
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — ASJ 09, 265 65. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (P102341) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P102341..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.