Position in chronology
NATN 315
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121013.
Transliteration
1(gesz2) 8(asz) sze gur si2-im-tum lugal#?-ta sza3 u-pi5 egir buru14-sze3 ag2-e-dam ki a2-zi-da-ta ba-ra-ad-i3-li2-sze3 szu ba-ti igi ur-szu-mah igi tu-ra-am-i3-li2 igi a-pi-la-num2 mu en inanna unu i-bi-suen in-il ba-ra-ad-i3-li2-szu# [dumu er3-ra-ba-ni]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 315. 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 (P121013) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121013..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.