Position in chronology
ASJ 16, 107 07
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P102586.
Transliteration
[x] udu niga saga [x] udu niga saga us2 [x] udu 3(disz)-kam us2 [x] udu 4(disz)-kam us2 4(disz) [...] masz2-gal niga 4(disz)-kam us2 tum-ma-al-sze3 giri3 ba-na-na u3 a-pi?-la#-sza-am 2(u) 6(disz) [u4] 3(disz)-kam [iti] ezem#-szu-suen [mu] e2# szara2 ba-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — ASJ 16, 107 07. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Bible Lands Museum, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA (P102586) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P102586..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.