Position in chronology
Princeton 1, 254
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P126943.
Transliteration
5(u) 4(asz) 2(barig) sze gur sze-numun mur-gu4 1(gesz2) 3(asz) 3(ban2) 1(disz) sila3 gur a2 lu2 hun-ga2 a-sza3-ge kin ak ki lu2#-[...]-ta lugal-isztaran szu ba-ti mu ha-ar-szi hu-ur5-ti ki-masz ba-hul lugal-isztaran dub-sar dumu lu2-banda3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Princeton 1, 254. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, USA (P126943) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P126943..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.