Position in chronology
Princeton 2, 365
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P201364.
Transliteration
1(u) [...] gur10 ki-la2-bi 2(disz) ma-na 6(disz) gin2 5(disz) ha-bu3-da uruda ki-la2-bi 2(disz) 1/2(disz) ma-na 1(disz) gin2 mu-kux(DU) ki ur-e2-an-na szabra-ta [usz]-am3 szu ba-ti mu usz-am3-sze3 kiszib3 ur-gigir simug ib2-ra iti szu-numun mu dumu-lugal ensi2 an-sza-na ba-an-tuku-a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Princeton 2, 365. 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 (P201364) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P201364..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.