Position in chronology
Sumerian Cuneifurm Tablet. Wellcome M0005812
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: Wikimedia Commons file: File:Sumerian Cuneifurm Tablet. Wellcome M0005812.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASumerian_Cuneifurm_Tablet._Wellcome_M0005812.jpg. Description: Sumerian Cuneifurm Tablet. Concerning a consignment of North Syrian cedar-wood (evidently imported from Lebanon) to be used in ship building. Dated: "year after the land of Urbillu was devastated", i.e. 49th year of King Shulgi, IIIrd Dynas
Scholarly note
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Sumerian Cuneifurm Tablet. Concerning a consignment of North Syrian cedar-wood (evidently imported from Lebanon) to be used in ship building. Dated: "year after the land of Urbillu was devastated", i.
Attribution
Image: https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/obf_images/0c/58/c6fce7e4b39de20f78dde385775b.jpg Gallery: https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/image/M0005812.html Wellcome Collection gallery (2018-04-03): https://wellcomecollection.org/works/djr7zy6u CC-BY-4.0 — Wikimedia Commons. source
Translation excerpted from Wikimedia Commons file: File:Sumerian Cuneifurm Tablet. Wellcome M0005812.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASumerian_Cuneifurm_Tablet._Wellcome_M0005812.jpg. Description: Sumerian Cuneifurm Tablet. Concerning a consignment of North Syrian cedar-wood (evidently imported from Lebanon) to be used in ship building. Dated: "year after the land of Urbillu was devastated", i.e. 49th year of King Shulgi, IIIrd Dynas.
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.