Position in chronology
TMH NF 1-2, 004
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P134316.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1/3(disz) gin2 ku3-babbar ur5-sze3 masz2 5(disz) gin2 ku3 1(disz) gin2-am3 ki ur-suen x-ta ur3-e-ba-ab-[du7] szu ba-ti iti bara2-za3-gar-ra u4 2(disz) ba-zal iti NE-NE-gar-ra gi4-gi4-dam mu bad3 ma-da ba-du3 ur3-ba-ab-[du7] gu-za-[la2]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TMH NF 1-2, 004. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y30 — The frontier wall was built based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Hilprecht Collection, University of Jena, Germany (P134316) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P134316..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.