Position in chronology
RTC 413
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P128566.
Transliteration
6(disz) ninda 4(disz) 1/3(disz) kusz3 gid2# 1/2(disz) ninda sukud 2(disz) kusz3 5(disz) szu-si dagal e2#-bi 3(disz) 1/2(disz) sar 2(disz) 1/2(disz) gin2 sig4!(KWU354)-bi 2(u) 5(disz) 1/2(disz) sar 6(disz) 2(u)# 1(disz) 4(u)! 3(disz) 1(u) 5(u)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — RTC 413. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P128566) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P128566..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.