Position in chronology
Princeton 2, 060
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P201058.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(disz) masz2-gal ba-usz2 u4 7(disz)-kam ki en-lil2-zi-sza3-gal2-ta szul-gi-iri-mu szu ba-ti iti ezem-an-na mu bad3 mar-tu ba-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Princeton 2, 060. 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: Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, USA (P201058) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P201058..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.