Position in chronology
Princeton 1, 336
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P127025.
Transliteration
1(u) la2 1(disz) gurusz u4 8(disz)-sze3 an-za-gar3-ta uri5-sze3 ma2 sze gid2-da u4 1(u)-sze3 ma2 ba-al-la u4 8(disz)-sze3 ma2 su gid2-da ugula a-kal-la kiszib3 ab-ba-gi-na [mu] en# ga-esz ba-hun ab-ba-gi-na dub-sar dumu lugal-ma2-gur8-re
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Princeton 1, 336. 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 (P127025) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P127025..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.