Position in chronology
OTR 080
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P123015.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[n] 2(disz) ma-na siki-gi nu-banda3 [n] 5(disz) ma-na siki pa [...] x a-sza3 a-gar szuszin#-ka mu# gu4 e2-gal-ke4# ib2#-uru4-a-sze3 ki lu2-nin-gir2-su-ta lu2-ba-ba6 dumu na-ba-sa6 szu ba-ti iti amar-a-a-si mu gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — OTR 080. 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: Columbia University Library, New York, New York, USA (P123015) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P123015..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.