Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 125
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P330073.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] , E2~a [...] , X# |E2~ax1(N57)@t| 5(N01) , GAL~a |SILA3~axHI| E2~a 6(N01) , |SILA3~axHI| 1(N01) , DUG~a KASZ~a 1(N01)# , [...] 1(N01) , BULUG3 DU6~a 1(N01) , IDIGNA PAP~a [...] , [...] [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 125. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA (P330073) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P330073..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.