Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 0696
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P323987.
Transliteration
6(disz) tug2 bar-si ba-tab duh-hu-um 3(disz)-kam us2 ki asz-ta2-qar-ta puzur4-a-ku-um szu ba-ti giri3 iszkur-illat iti ezem-an-na mu ma2-gur8-mah ba-ab-du8 szu-kab-ta a-zu dumu na-ra-am-i3-li2 puzur4-a-ku-um lu2 azlag2 ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 0696. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA (P323987) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P323987..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.