Position in chronology
Georgica 2.03
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P109396.
Transliteration
7(disz) gurusz u4 3(disz)-sze3 e a-ga-an-du-ul-ka szu ur3-ra 8(disz) gurusz u4 7(disz)-sze3 a-sza3-ge a du11-ga u3 kab2-ku5 sahar si-ga a-sza3 en-du8-du ugula lu2-du10-ga kiszib3 ur-dun mu si-ma-num2 ba-hul ur-[dun] dub-[sar] dumu [da-da]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Georgica 2.03. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P109396) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P109396..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.