Position in chronology
NATN 635
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121333.
Transliteration
[... x-]nusku-ke4 [x]-la-ha-ar [di] in-da-du11 [x] ma-na 1(u) 2(disz) gin2 ku3-babbar x mu 3(disz)-bi 2/3(disz) ma-na 3(disz) gin2 igi-6(disz)-gal2 6(disz) sze ku3-babbar [...] [...]-dam# [...]-a [...] x tab [...]-me [...] du# [...] x [...] x
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 635. 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 (P121333) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121333..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.