Position in chronology
AAS 016
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P100004.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(disz) geme2 ki lugal-si!-NE!-e-ta iti sig4-i3-<szub>-ga2-ra-ta u4 6(disz) ib2-ta-zal ur-ab-ba lunga? i3-dab5 iti sig4-i3-szub-ga2-ra mu si-mu-ru-um ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAS 016. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y23 — Simurrum destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P100004) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P100004..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.