Position in chronology
SET 190
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P129600.
Transliteration
3(u) 3(barig) 4(ban2) sze gur sa2-du11 nun-gal ki ARAD2-ta ur-sa6-sa6-ga szu ba-ti mu ku3 gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2 ur-sa6-sa6-ga# dumu ur-[isztaran] szabra# [nun-gal]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SET 190. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, San Jose, California, USA (P129600) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P129600..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.