Position in chronology
CST 663
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108180.
Transliteration
1(asz) 3(barig) sze gur sza3-gal gu4 niga iti dal-ta iti szu-numun u4 4(disz)-sze3 kiszib3 a-du guru7-ta u3-um-de6 kiszib3 ur-gigir-ka zi-re-dam mu ma2 en-ki ba-ab-du8 ur-gigir dub-sar dumu ba-sa6-ga#?
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CST 663. 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 (P108180) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108180..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.