Position in chronology
Fs Lenoble 169, no. 39
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P387662.
Transliteration
1(u) 1(disz) u8 kur bar-gal2 ba-usz2#? ki ur-x-x-ta# kiszib3 da-da-ga iti ezem-szul-gi mu us2-sa puzur4-da-gan ba-du3 ur-li9-si4 ensi2 umma lu2-du10-ga dub-sar dumu nigar-ki-du10 gal5-la2-gal ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Fs Lenoble 169, no. 39. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: American University of Beirut Archaeological Museum, Beirut, Lebanon (P387662) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P387662..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.