Position in chronology
Kyoto 21
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P112426.
Transliteration
1(gesz2) 6(disz) gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3 ki-su7 DU-am3 amar-suen-szara2-ki-ag2 ugula ur-mes kiszib3 lugal-e2-mah-e mu hu-hu-nu-ri ba-hul lugal-e2-[mah-e] [dub-sar] dumu lugal-[ku3-ga-ni]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Kyoto 21. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan (P112426) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P112426..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.