Position in chronology
SET 196
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P129606.
Transliteration
1(u) 4(barig) sze gur lugal 1(u) 4(asz) 2(barig) ziz2 gur sa2-du11 szara2 iti 1(u) 2(disz)-kam kiszib3 1(asz)-a ki ARAD2-ta ur-suen i3!?-du8 szu ba-ti mu e2 puzur4-da-gan ba-du3 ur!-suen dumu lu2!-szara2# nu-banda3 e2!-nin!
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SET 196. 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 (P129606) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P129606..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.