Position in chronology
RIME 3/2.01.02.016, ex. 04
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P226505.
Transliteration
nin-hur-sag nin-a-ni szul-gi nita kal-ga lugal uri5-ma lugal ki-en-gi ki-uri-ke4 gesz kesz2-ra2 ki-ag2-ni mu-na-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — RIME 3/2.01.02.016, ex. 04. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: OIM A01140 (Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA) — from Adab (mod. Bismaya) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P226505). source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P226505..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.