Position in chronology
Princeton 1, 441
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P127130.
Transliteration
1(gesz2) 5(disz) gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3 szu ur3-ra zar3 tab-ba a-sza3 szul-pa-e3 u3 na-ga-ab-tum ugula usz#-mu kiszib3 ukken-ne2 mu us2-sa ki-masz ba-hul mu us2-sa-a-bi lugal-ukken-ne2 dub-sar dumu du-du-am3?
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Princeton 1, 441. 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 (P127130) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P127130..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.