Position in chronology
SumRecDreh 22
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P130519.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(asz) 4(barig) sze gur a2 ma2 hun-ga2 sag-da-na-ta szul-gi-he2-gal2-sze3 szabra u3-a u3-na-a-du11-ta mu si-ma-num2 ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SumRecDreh 22. 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 (P130519) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P130519..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.