Position in chronology
SANTAG 6, 176
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211623.
Transliteration
1(disz) sila4 bar-ba-zi-ga e2 szara2-sze3 1(disz) sila4 bar-ba-zi-ga e2 nin-ur4-ra-sze3 7(disz) udu niga a2 u4-da 3(disz) udu niga 2(disz) masz2 niga [...]-sze3 nig2-diri za3!(DUB)-mu amar-suen bara2-ga tusz-a ki a-lu5-lu5-ta zi-ga-am3 iti ezem-amar-suen mu hu-uh2-nu-ri ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SANTAG 6, 176. 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 (P211623) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211623..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.