Position in chronology
NYPL 227
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122765.
Transliteration
1(disz) sila4 utu mu-kux(DU) zabar-dab5 nansze-GIR2@g?-gal maszkim 4(disz) gu4 6(disz) ab2 1(u) 1(disz) udu 1(gesz2) 3(disz) u8 1(disz) kir11 5(disz) masz2 4(disz) ud5 6(disz) asz2-gar3 szu-gid2 e2-muhaldim mu aga3-us2-e-ne-sze3 ARAD2-mu maszkim zi-ga u4 2(u) la2 1(disz)-kam iti ki-siki-nin-a-zu mu ki-masz u3 hu-ur5-ti ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NYPL 227. 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 (P122765) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122765..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.