Position in chronology
NATN 429
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121127.
Transliteration
1(disz) ur5 zi-bi2 1(disz) ur5 ad-bar ur-szu-mah 1(disz) ur5 zi-bi2 ur-nigar 1(disz) ur5 zi hal-hal-dam a2 nar 1(disz) ur5 zi-bi2 i-szar-pa2-ni 1(disz) ur5 zi-bi2 3(disz) A-KU 1(disz) ur5 zi-bi2 lu2-sa6-ga szunigin 7(disz) har ki ur-ma-ma-sze3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 429. 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 (P121127) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121127..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.