Position in chronology
NATN 233
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120931.
Transliteration
1(gesz2) 1(u) 4(ban2) sze gur lugal 3(u) 8(asz) 3(barig) 1(ban2) ziz2 gur 1(u) 7(asz) 1(barig) 2(ban2) 5(disz) sila3 gig gur ki lu2-utu-ta u3 ki lu2-sukkal-an-na-ta lugal-inim-gi-na-ke4 szu ba-ti iti ezem-an-na mu en eridu ba-hun-ga2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 233. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P120931) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120931..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.