Position in chronology
CST 686
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108203.
Transliteration
1(disz) ur-suen [dumu ...]-kal-la 1(disz) lugal-ma2-gur8-re# dumu ba-a-sa6-ga 1(disz) ur-szul-pa-e3 dam-gar3 1(disz) a2-ta dumu ur-dumu-zi-da 1(disz) a#?-bi2-ba-ni [...] x [...]-me [...] x ur-dumu-zi-da [dub-sar] [dumu ...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CST 686. 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 (P108203) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108203..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.