Position in chronology
MRAH O.4995
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P005573.
Why it matters
Transliteration
3(N14) 6(N01) , AL# 8(N01) , EN~a TUR 7(N01) , |U4x1(N57)| TUR 1(N01) , |U4x2(N57)| TUR 2(N14) 2(N01) , |U4x3(N57)| TUR 1(N34) 1(N14) 4(N01) , 1(N57) 2(N57) MUN~a1 SU~a PAP~a NIM~b2 |DARA3~cxKAR2| AL#?
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MRAH O.4995. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Brussels, Belgium (P005573) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P005573..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.