Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 219
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006351.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(N01) 1(N39~a) , MUD NA~a BU~a KU6~a KISAL~b1 2(N39~a) , AN GIR3@g~b 3(N39~a) , UB ZI~a# 2(N39~a) , NUNUZ~a1 AMA~a 1(N39~a) , SZIM~a E2~b 1(N39~a)# , KI# [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 219. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Rare Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, New York, USA (P006351) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006351..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.