Position in chronology
YRL SC 1813-Bx1-2
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P373973.
Transliteration
1(disz) dur3 1(disz) udu hur-sag 1(disz) dara4-munus 1(disz) masz2 a-dara4 ba-usz2 u4 2(u) 2(disz)-kam ki lu2-dingir-ra-ta ur-nigar szu ba-ti iti ezem-nin-a-zu mu us2 ki-masz# hu-ur5-ti ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — YRL SC 1813-Bx1-2. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Special Collections, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA (P373973) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P373973..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.