Position in chronology
HLC 311 (pl. 019)
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P110182.
Transliteration
3(asz) 3(barig) 4(ban2) 5(disz) sila3 sze gur lugal sze-ba aga3-us2 mar-tu ugula# lu2-nanna giri3 szu-nin-szubur [ki] lu2-gi-na-ta iti sze-sag11-ku5 mu# ki-masz ba-hul ur-ba-ba6 dub-sar dumu na-mu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — HLC 311 (pl. 019). 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 (P110182) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P110182..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.