Position in chronology
HSS 04, 100
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P110373.
Transliteration
1(u) 3(disz) gu4 e2-gu4-sze3 ki ur-sze-il2-la-ta giri3 ur-dun iti u4 1(u) 5(disz) ba-zal 1(disz) udu-gal ki hu-wa-wa-ta 1(disz) ki nig2-kal-la-ta 1(disz) ki ur-nun-gal-ta 1(disz) ki lu2-nin-szubur-ta udu amasz-sze3 lugal-he2-gal2 i3-dab5 iti gu4-ra2-bi2-mu2-mu2-ta u4 1(u) 5(disz) ba-zal mu dumu-munus lugal ensi2 an-sza-an-ke4 ba-tuku
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — HSS 04, 100. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (P110373) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P110373..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.