Position in chronology
JCS 52, 035 06
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P145800.
Transliteration
1(disz) gu4 8(disz) udu 2(disz) masz2 erin2 a-ba-al ugula i-szar-ra-ma-asz 2(disz) udu niga 1(disz) sila4 ur-sa6-ga szabra ama-inanna 1(disz) sila4 ur-nin-gal 1(disz) sila4 szesz-zi-mu 1(disz) sila4# lu2-nin-szubur [...] ur-nigar ka-guru7 5(disz) udu 1(disz) sila4 i-gi4-ha-lum mu-kux(DU) iti ezem-mah mu ki-masz u3 hu-ur5-ti ba-hul u4 1(u) 1(disz)-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — JCS 52, 035 06. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Arizona State Museum, Tucson, Arizona, USA (P145800) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P145800..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.