Position in chronology
CST 679
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108196.
Transliteration
1(barig) dam a-kal-la 1(barig) geme2 ur-gigir 1(barig) lugal-[...] 1(barig) geme2-szara2-zi-da 1(barig) geme2-ur-x-x 1(barig) dumu lugal-inim-gi-na 1(barig) dam [...] 1(barig) aga3-us2 lugal-nesag-e 1(barig) dam ur-x-x giri3 lugal-a2-zi-da
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CST 679. 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 (P108196) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108196..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.