Position in chronology
USC 6538
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P235351.
Transliteration
3(u) 5(disz) gurusz# u4# [...] gi ku5-ta [n sar-ta] 2(u) 5(disz) gurusz# [u4 ...] al 5(disz)# [sar-ta] sza3 sahar-ra# [...] ugula lugal-ma2-gur8#-re# kiszib3 da#-a-gi a-sza3 amar-kiszi17# iti e2-iti-6(disz)# mu ki-masz ba#-hul da-a-gi dub-sar ()
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — USC 6538. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Archaeological Research Collection, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA (P235351) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P235351..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.