Position in chronology
USC 6591
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P235403.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[n] gurusz# u4 1(disz)-sze3 [kab2]-ku5# am3-zi-[...]-ka sahar si-ga 2(u)# gurusz u4 2(disz)-sze3 ka i7-da-ka sahar si-ga ugula lugal-ab-ba# a-sza3 i3-szum2 x kiszib3 nam-sza3-tam nig2-u2-rum dub-sar iti# dumu-zi mu# gu-za en-[lil2]-la2# ba-dim2 nig2-u2-rum dub-sar dumu nanna-i3-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — USC 6591. 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: Archaeological Research Collection, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA (P235403) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P235403..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.