Position in chronology
Hermitage 3, 354
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211955.
Transliteration
1(disz) asz2-gar3 niga 3(disz)-kam us2 4(disz) sila4 1(disz) masz2 me-isztaran nig2-dab5 e2-u4-1(u) 5(disz) be-li2-i3-li2 maszkim sza3 mu-kux(DU)-ra-ta u4 1(u) 1(disz)-kam ki ab-ba-sa6-ga-ta ba-zi giri3 nu-ur2-suen dub-sar iti ezem-nin-a-zu mu en nanna kar-zi-da ba-hun 6(disz)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Hermitage 3, 354. 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 (P211955) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211955..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.