Position in chronology
TRU 343
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P135107.
Transliteration
[x gu4] 2(disz) [udu] szu-gid2 [e2-muhaldim] mu lu2 szuku-ra-ke4-ne-sze3 ARAD2-mu maszkim u4 1(u) 3(disz)-kam ki ur-ku3-nun-na-ta ba-zi giri3 nu-ur2-suen u3 lu2-sza-lim iti ezem-szul-gi [mu ...] [x] gu4 2(disz) udu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TRU 343. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Institut Catholique, Paris, France (P135107) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P135107..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.