Position in chronology
NYPL 115
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122651.
Transliteration
4(disz) udu niga bar-su-ga ri-ri-ga ki lugal-a2-zi!-da!-ta kiszib3 ensi2 iti e2-iti-6(disz) mu a-ra2 2(disz)-kam sza-asz-ru-um ba-hul amar-suen nita kal-ga lugal uri5-ma lugal an-ub-da limmu2-ba ur-li9-si4 ensi2 umma ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NYPL 115. 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 (P122651) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122651..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.