Position in chronology
NYPL 109
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122645.
Transliteration
1(gesz2) 1(u) 2(asz) 1(barig) 2(ban2) ku6 bil2 gur 3(gesz'u) ku6 kun-zi suhur ki lugal-nesag-e-ta u3-ma-ni szu ba-ti mu us2-sa bad3 ba-du3 u3-ma-ni dub-sar dumu ur-gigir
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NYPL 109. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: New York Public Library, New York, New York, USA (P122645) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122645..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.