Position in chronology
HLC 041 (pl. 015)
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P109919.
Transliteration
2(u) 3(asz) 2(barig) 4(ban2) sze gur lugal sze-ba he2-dab5 tukul-e dab5-ba-sze3 sze-kar-ra#-ta ki ur-sag-ub3-ta kiszib3 ur-nigar dumu lu2-nin-szubur mu ur!-lamma szesz-a-na-sze3 iti sze-il2-la-ta iti gu4-ra2-bi2-mu2-mu2-sze3 mu us2-sa ki-masz ba-hul#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — HLC 041 (pl. 015). 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 (P109919) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P109919..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.