Position in chronology
Hermitage 3, 012
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P212232.
Transliteration
3(u) sze gur lugal ku3-bi 1(disz) ma-na 1(u) 7(disz) gin2-sze3 ma2 ab-ba-mu ma2-lah5 nigin6-ta ki nin-gir2-su-ka-i3-sa6-ta kiszib3 ur-nin-mar dumu lu2-utu iti sze-sag11-ku5 mu e2 puzur4-isz-da-gan ba-du3 al-la ensi2 lagasz ur-nin-mar dumu lu2-utu ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Hermitage 3, 012. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P212232) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P212232..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.