Position in chronology
KM 89153
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P234938.
Transliteration
1(gesz2) 2(u) la2 1(disz@t) u4 1(disz)-[sze3] 1(gesz2) gurusz ugula u4 1(u)-sze3 mar-sa-a gub-ba ugula ba-sa6-ga kiszib3 lu2-sa6-i3-zu iti diri mu si-mu-ru-um lu-lu-bum2 a-ra2 1(u) la2 1(disz)-kam ba-hul lu2-sa6-i3-zu dub-sar# dumu# a#-kal-la
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — KM 89153. 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 (P234938) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P234938..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.