Position in chronology
Princeton 2, 366
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P201365.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(u) la2 2(disz) gurusz u4 4(disz)-sze3 gan-IL2 kab2-ku5 dub-la2-utu-sze3 ugula lu2-nin-szubur giri3 szesz-saga iti ezem-szul-gi mu us2-sa an-sza-an ba-hul szesz-sa6-ga dub-sar dumu ma-ba |KUN.SZE3.KA#|
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Princeton 2, 366. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y36 — Year after: Anšan destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, USA (P201365) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P201365..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.