Position in chronology
NYPL 041
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122577.
Why it matters
Transliteration
3(gesz2) 2(u) 5(disz) geme2 u4 1(disz)-sze3 zar3 tab-ba szu ur3-ra sze a-ta du8-a u3 e sa-dur2-ra a-sza3 szara2-ka gub-ba ugula lugal-e2-mah-e kiszib3 nam-sza3-tam i3-kal-la mu gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2 i3-kal-la dub-[sar] [dumu] lu2-[sa6-ga]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NYPL 041. 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: New York Public Library, New York, New York, USA (P122577) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122577..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.