Position in chronology
CM 26, 149
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P330164.
Transliteration
4(u) la2 2(disz@t) gurusz 3(ban2) sze lugal-ta sze-bi 3(asz) 4(barig) gur sza3-gal erin2 bala gub-ba ugula ur-ki-gu-la nu-banda3 ur-gigir dumu gi4-ni-mu mu ur-gigir nu-banda3-sze3 kiszib3 ur-lamma-ka ib2-ra i3-dub sipa-da-ri2 iti sze-sag11-ku5 mu ur-bi2-i3-lum ba-hul ur-lamma dub-sar dumu lu2-x-x
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CM 26, 149. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (P330164) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P330164..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.