Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 157
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P325068.
Why it matters
Transliteration
4(N39~a)# , KU6~a ZATU710 3(N39~a)# , |ZATU714xHI@g~a| ME~a SANGA~a TUR3~b 1(N39~a) 1(N24) , U4 GAR 1(N39~a)# 1(N24) , ZATU710 KU6~a KISAL~b1 1(N14)# , TUR3~b ME~a 2(N01) , ZATU710# HAL# |ZATU714xHI@g~a|
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 157. 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 (P325068) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P325068..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.