Position in chronology
RA 059, 147 FM 57
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P127951.
Transliteration
1(disz) sila3 kasz elam 2(disz) szu ba-ti 9(disz) sila3 kasz szul-gi-sza-am3-szi an-sza-an-ta gen-na iti sze-sag11-ku5
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — RA 059, 147 FM 57. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK (P127951) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P127951..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.