Position in chronology
Princeton 2, 173
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P201171.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(gesz'u) 3(gesz2) sar gi ze2-a 1(u) 3(disz) sar-ta a2-bi u4 1(gesz2)-kam 4(u) sar numun ku5-a 2(u) sar-ta a2-bi 2(gesz2) 2(u)-kam a2 lu2 hun-ga2 6(disz) sila3-ta [a-sza3] e2-mah ugula lugal-ku3-ga-ni kiszib3 lugal-he2-gal2 mu bad3 mar-tu ba-du3 lugal-he2-gal2 dub-sar dumu ur-utu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Princeton 2, 173. 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 (P201171) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P201171..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.