Position in chronology
CST 578
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108094.
Transliteration
5(disz)# 1/2(disz) dug gal dug-bi 2(disz) sila3 tur-re-dam ugula#? ur-e2-nun kiszib3#? ur-saman4 [sa2]-du11#? ku5-[ra2] sza3# e2-te-na sza3 bala-a ur-saman3 dub-sar dumu lu2-gi#-[na]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CST 578. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK (P108094) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108094..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.