MS 2680

~3100 BCE·Uruk Period·P006101

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006101.

Why it matters

Transliteration

[...] 2(N01)# , NUN~b# [...]
[...] 2(N01)# , MASZ2#
1(N01)# , X [...]
1(N01)# , X [...]
[...] , [...]
1(N34) , [...] X BA SZE~a X [...]
2(N34)# 6(N01)# [...] , UDU~a# [...]
[...] , [...] X

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2680. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006101) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006101..

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

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.

~3500 BCE

Kish Tablet

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.

~2450 BCE

Stele of the Vultures

The earliest historical document in human history.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.