Position in chronology
Christie's London 19941207 229a
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P333127.
Transliteration
5(disz) gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3 ma2-la2-a sze# e2#?-mah#? x x? u4 8(disz)-sze3 ma2-la2-a [...] u4 3(disz)-sze3 kun-zi-[da?] ma2 ba-al-la ma2 kesz2-ra2 u3 ma2 e3-a x x x
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Christie's London 19941207 229a. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: unlocated (P333127) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P333127..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.