Position in chronology
UET 3, 0138
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P136455.
Transliteration
u4 2(u) 3(disz) nu-ub-tuku u4 2(u) 4(disz) nu-ub-tuku 3(disz) sila4 ki ensi2 bala-a-ka-ta 2(disz) udu niga e2-gal-ta e2 nanna-sze3 a2 ge6-ba-a u4 2(u) 5(disz)-kam zi-ga esz3-esz3 lugal iti a2-ki-ti mu dumu-munus lugal ensi2 za-ab-sza-li-ke4 ba-an-tuku
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — UET 3, 0138. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P136455) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P136455..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.