Position in chronology
Syracuse 041
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P130592.
Why it matters
Transliteration
6(disz) gurusz u4 5(disz)-sze3 a-da gub-ba kiri6 e2-sza3-ga ki lu2-szara2-ta kiszib3 ba-sa6-ga iti dumu-zi mu us2-sa an-sza#-an ba-hul ba-sa6-ga dumu giri3-ni gal5-[la2]-gal
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Syracuse 041. 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: Syracuse University Library, Syracuse, New York, USA (P130592) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P130592..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.