Position in chronology
IMJ 80.060.0198
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P430030.
Transliteration
2(gesz2) 4(u) 4(disz) u3-suh5 mi-ri2-za ma2 3(u) gur ki gu-du-du-ta# kiszib3 lu2-sa6#-[i3-zu] mu en inanna unu masz2-e i3-pa3 lu2-sa6-i3-zu dub-sar dumu a-kal-la
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — IMJ 80.060.0198. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem (P430030) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P430030..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.