Position in chronology
Kyoto 29
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P112434.
Transliteration
1(u) 9(disz) geme2 u4 1(disz)-sze3 a-sza3 la2-mah ab-sin2-ta la-ag ri-ri-ga ugula ur-nin-tu kiszib3 gu-u2-gu mu bad3 mar-[...] gu-u2-gu-a dub-sar dumu ma-an-szum2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Kyoto 29. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan (P112434) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P112434..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.