Position in chronology
SANTAG 6, 063
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211485.
Transliteration
3(u) 8(disz) tug2 hi-a 1(asz) esir2 E2-A gur 1(u) 5(asz) gu2 3(u) ma-na esir2 had2 1(u) 1(asz) gu2 3(u) ma-na esir2 ma2 1(u) gur mu-kux(DU) 5(disz) 1/2(disz) sila3 sze-gesz-i3 1(u) 3(asz) gu2 nin9 mu-kux(DU) szara2 ki en-u2-a-ta ur-e11-e-ke4 szu ba-ti mu ur-bi2-lum ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SANTAG 6, 063. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P211485) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211485..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.