Position in chronology
Hermitage 3, 044
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211436.
Transliteration
2(disz) sila3 ninda ur-da-mu 2(disz) sila3 ninda ur3-re-ba-du7 2(disz) sila3 kasz 2(disz) sila3 ninda lugal-ezem sipa 1(ban2) n sila3 x x x ur-gar lu2 kin-gi4-a lugal ma2-gur8-re giri3 ur-ba-ba6 zi-ga u4 1(disz)-kam iti munu4-gu7
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Hermitage 3, 044. 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 (P211436) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211436..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.