Position in chronology
HLC 198 (pl. 106)
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P110073.
Transliteration
1(asz) 3(barig) 3(ban2) ninda DU gur! a2 usz-gesztin-sa6-ga ki ur-szu-ga-lam#-[ma-ta] kiszib3 ur-ba-ba6 iti szu-numun mu us2-sa ma2-dara3 ba-ab-[du8] ur-ba-ba6 dub-sar dumu lu2-ba-ba6
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — HLC 198 (pl. 106). 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 (P110073) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P110073..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.