Position in chronology
CDLJ 2009/4 §4
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006268.
Why it matters
Transliteration
, 1(N57) MUN~a1# 4(N14) 3(N01) , AL 1(N14) 1(N01) , EN~a TUR 5(N01) , |U4x1(N57)| TUR 1(N14) , |U4x2(N57)| TUR 1(N14) 6(N01) , |U4x3(N57)| TUR 1(N34) 2(N14) 5(N01) , 1(N57) 2(N57) MUN~a1 SU~a PAP~a |1(N58).BAD~a| SI AN AD~a GIR~a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CDLJ 2009/4 §4. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006268) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006268..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.