Position in chronology
LoC 032
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P272555.
Transliteration
2(u) 4(asz) sze gur ba-ba6 2(asz) sze gur zi-ga a-sza3 1(asz) sze gur ab-ba-kal-la 2(asz) sze gur sze-ba erin2-na 2(u) 9(asz) sze gur sza3-bi-ta 5(asz) dabin gur e2-a gal2-la 6(asz) sze gur ur-nun-gal 2(asz) gur lu2-kal-la 1(u) sze gur ur-tur-tur 5(asz) sze gur igi-x [...] i3-dab5 [...] la2-ia3 1(asz) [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — LoC 032. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Library of Congress, Washington, DC, USA (P272555) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P272555..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.