Position in chronology
UET 3, 1306
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P137631.
Transliteration
[x] ku6# suhur sig u4 1(u) 5(disz)-kam [x] ku6# sag-kur2 1(disz) sag suen#? ku6 duru5 u4 1(u) 6(disz)-kam x lu2# a-sza3 da-x-[...] asalx(|GAB.LISZ|)-ta giri3 en-nanna-ar-i3-de6 iti ezem-nin-a-zu u4 1(u) 6(disz)-kam mu us2-sa bad3-gal ba-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — UET 3, 1306. 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 (P137631) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P137631..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.