Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 126
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P325455.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] , ABZU#? 3(N39~a) , LA2 SUG5 1(N28) GUG2 1(N28)# , AN#? KU3~a# [...] , SZUBUR GUG2~a? 1(N30~a)# , NIM~b1 [...] , HI@g~a# [...] , ABZU#? [...] , [...] 1(N28)# , DU8~c GUG2 X 1(N39~a) , SAL# SZU# PAP~a [...] , [...] |U4.6(N08)|# , SZE~a , |U4.6(N08)|
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 126. 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 (P325455) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P325455..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.