Position in chronology
SANTAG 6, 088
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211573.
Transliteration
1(gesz2) u3-suh5 gi-musz 2(gesz2) la2 5(disz) mi-ri2-za ki i3-kal-la-ta ur-isztaran u3 ma2-gur8-re szu ba-ti sza3 bala-a iti sze-sag11-ku5 mu ha-ar-szi ki-masz ba-hul ur-isztaran# gudu4 szara2# dumu lugal-za3-ge-[si]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SANTAG 6, 088. 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 (P211573) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211573..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.