Position in chronology
Princeton 1, 516
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P127205.
Transliteration
2(gesz2) 1(u) 2(disz) gurusz 6(gesz2) 3(u) 6(disz) ug3-IL2 u4 1(disz)-sze3 4(ban2) a-da gub-ba a-sza3 a-u2-da a-sza3 szul-pa-e3 u3 a-sza3 szara2-he2-gal2 2(gesz2) gurusz 5(gesz2) ug3-IL2 4(ban2) u4 1(disz)-sze3 a-da gub-ba a-sza3 <a>-bu3 u3 a-sza3 nin10-nu-du3 ugula ARAD2 kiszib3 inim-szara2 mu hu-uh2-nu-ri ba-hul inim-szara2 dumu ur-nigar
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Princeton 1, 516. 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 (P127205) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P127205..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.