Position in chronology
OIP 121, 346
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124076.
Transliteration
2(disz) udu niga gu4-e-us2-sa da-da gala 1(disz) udu niga gu4-e-us2-sa ur-nin#-gubalag nar ur#-[ba-ba6?] muhaldim# maszkim [sza3 mu-kux(DU)-ra]-ta# u4 4(disz@t)-kam ki ab-ba-sa6-ga-ta ba-zi iti ezem-nin-a-zu mu en-nun-e-amar-suen-ra-ki-ag2 en eridu ba-hun 3(disz)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — OIP 121, 346. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P124076) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124076..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.