Position in chronology
Hermitage 3, 115
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P212134.
Transliteration
1(disz) sila4 utu mu-kux(DU) ensi2 mar2-da 1(disz) sila4 lamma-lugal mu-kux(DU) wa-ta2-ru-um zabar-dab5 maszkim 7(disz) udu 2(disz) u8 1(disz) sila4 1(disz) ud5 4(disz)# masz2 szu-gid2 e2-muhaldim-sze3 u4 2(u) 4(disz)-kam zi-ga iti ezem-mah mu en nanna masz-e# i3-pa3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Hermitage 3, 115. 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 (P212134) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P212134..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.