Position in chronology
UET 3, 0183
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P136500.
Transliteration
u4 2(disz) [nu-ub-tuku] u4 3(disz) nu-ub-tuku u4 4(disz) nu-ub-tuku 5(disz) sila3 kasz ge6 du 2(disz) sila3 zi3-gu 1(disz) sila3 esza du6-ur2-sze3 1(ban2) kasz ge6 du bala-bala-e-de3 1(ban2) zi3-gu 5(disz) sila3 esza nig2-du10 e2 nanna-sze3 a2 ge6-ba-a u4 5(disz)-kam zi-ga siskur2 lugal iti u5-bi2-gu7 mu us2-sa bad3-gal ba-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — UET 3, 0183. 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 (P136500) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P136500..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.