Position in chronology
JCS 02, 188 PTS 1274
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P201380.
Transliteration
2(disz) kid szer7-um ki-la2-bi 1(disz) 1/3(disz) sar ma2 zi3 sig15 lugal-gaba-ka ba-a-dulx(|URxA|) 1(disz) kid szer7-um ki-la2-bi 5/6(disz) sar ma2 zi3-da zi-[...]-di ba-a-dulx(|URxA|) ki lu2-igi-sa6-sa6-ga-ta kiszib3 ur-zu iti diri mu us2-sa ki-masz ba-hul ur-zu dub-sar zi3-da dumu a2-zi-da
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — JCS 02, 188 PTS 1274. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, USA (P201380) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P201380..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.