Position in chronology
UET 3, 1273
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P137598.
Transliteration
1(u) kusz gu4 siki mu2 [x] a2 gesz-gar-a-da-ta u3 ab-ba-sze3 ki ur-ba-ba6-ta bur-ma-ma szu ba-an-ti iti ezem-szul-gi mu ma2-dara3-abzu en-ki ba-ab-du8 szu-suen nita kal-ga lugal uri5-ma lugal an-ub-da limmu2-ba bur-ma-ma dub-sar dumu [...] ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — UET 3, 1273. 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 (P137598) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P137598..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.