Position in chronology
NYPL 076
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122612.
Why it matters
Transliteration
4(disz) 2/3(disz) ma-na 2/3(disz) gin2 2(u) sze ku3-babbar giri3 ur-e11-e 2/3(disz) ma-na 7(disz) 1/3(disz) gin2 2(disz) 1/2(disz) sze ku3-babbar giri3 a-ab-ba 1(disz) 1/3(disz) ma-na 3(disz) gin2 igi-6(disz)-gal2 2(disz) 1/2(disz) sze ku3 giri3 lugal-e2-mah-e szesz lugal-kiri6 ku3 masz a-sza3-ga ki ur-szara2-ta a-kal-la szu ba-ti mu an-sza-an ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NYPL 076. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y35 — Anšan destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: New York Public Library, New York, New York, USA (P122612) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122612..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.