Position in chronology
UET 3, 1681
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P138007.
Transliteration
1(disz) tug2 nig2-dag us2# ki-la2-bi 1(u) 8(disz) 2/3(disz) ma-na i-di3-e2-a szu ba-an-ti tug2 ki-la2 tag-ga mu-kux(DU) puzur4-iszkur# [x] nu-banda3 ur-mes# [x] giri3 lugal-dumu-[gi7?] iti ezem-nin-a-zu mu en-am-gal-an#-[na] en inanna unu#[-ga] ba#-[hun]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — UET 3, 1681. 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 (P138007) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P138007..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.