Position in chronology
Buffalo SNS.11-2, 135 06
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P107408.
Transliteration
3(disz) i3!-gesz uri5-sze3 ki ur4-sza3-ki-ta kiszib3 na-silim! giri3 a-x x-gar3 mu en nanna ga-esz ba-hun e2-a-ni-sza lukur ki-ag2 lugal na-[silim] dumu ur#-esz3#-bar#-ra# ARAD2-[zu]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Buffalo SNS.11-2, 135 06. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Museum of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, Buffalo, New York, USA (P107408) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P107408..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.