Position in chronology
Berens 051
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105762.
Why it matters
Transliteration
3(u) 4(barig) sze gur lugal sze ur5-ra erin2 engar 2(u) 1(ban2) gur sze erin2-na ki al-la-mu-ta ur-szusz3-ba-ba6 szu ba-ti mu ur-szusz3-ba-ba6 kiszib3 al-la dumu ka5-a-mu ib2-ra e2 nin-gir2-su-me i3-dub a-ba-al-la-ta iti sze-il2-la mu bad3 mar-tu ba-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Berens 051. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y37 — The Amorite wall was built based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland (P105762) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105762..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.