Position in chronology
NATN 801
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121498.
Transliteration
1(disz) masz2 ku3-bi# [...] dam ni-[...] mu# x [...] PA x [...] 1(gesz2) 4(u) ku3-bi igi 6(disz)-[gal2 ...] e2 tul2-ta [...] 3(disz) uz ku3-bi 1(u) 6(disz) [...] ku3-SZIM [...] 1(disz) sila3 i3-gesz [...] dam ni-[...] 1(disz) sila3 [...] [ki ...]-ta# [...]-x szu ba-ti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 801. 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 (P121498) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121498..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.