Position in chronology
SumRecDreh 07
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P130504.
Why it matters
Transliteration
8(disz) tug2 guz-za du ki-la2-bi 3(u) 3(disz) ma-na 5(disz) tug2 usz-bar ki-la2-bi 1(u) 3(disz) 1/3(disz) ma-na 1(disz) tug2 mug ki-la2-bi 3(disz) ma-na 1(u) gin2 ki a2-na-na-ta mu-kux(DU) iti masz-da3-gu7 mu us2#-sa# ur-bi2-lum ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SumRecDreh 07. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: private: anonymous, New York, New York, USA (P130504) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P130504..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.