Position in chronology
Princeton 2, 003
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P201001.
Transliteration
7(disz) udu szu-gid2 1(u) masz2 gesz-du3 ki lugal-ezem-ta ur-ku3-nun-na <i3-dab5> iti a2-ki-ti mu e2 szara2 ba-du3 szu-suen lugal kal-ga lugal uri5-ma lugal an-ub-da limmu2-ba ur-ku3-nun-na dub-sar dumu lu2-nin-gir2-su kuruszda ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Princeton 2, 003. 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 (P201001) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P201001..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.