Position in chronology
AO 07935
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P492732.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(gesz'u) 9(gesz2) 2(u) sze gur lugal geszimmar-du3-a-ta 3(u) 1(barig) gur me-luh-ta sze-ba aga3-us2 giri3? a-bu-ni ki szesz-kal-la-ta kiszib3 ur-en-lil2-la2 iti sze-sag11-ku5 mu gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2 ur-en-lil2-la2 dub-sar dumu ka-sa6 kuruszda
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AO 07935. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Ur-Nammu y14 — The throne of Enlil was fashioned based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P492732) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P492732..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.