Position in chronology
KM 89028
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P234820.
Transliteration
[...] 4(disz)# [...] [...] a2-sa6-ga# [...]-ke4 [x] 1(u)# 5(disz) ug3-IL2 [x] lugal#-gu2-gal [x] PA lugal-eridu-sze3 esz3#? didli 1(disz)? 1/2(disz)? giri3-se3-ga-ke4?-x szunigin# 3(gesz2) 2(u) 4(disz) 1/2(disz) gurusz sza3-bi-ta 3(u)# gu4 [...] 1(u) 5(disz) [...] udu [...] x [...] x
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — KM 89028. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA (P234820) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P234820..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.