Position in chronology
MS 2863/21
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006187.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] , [...] [...] , [...] [...] , [...] SI# LU2 1(N01) , MAR~a I 1(N01) , SZIR~b NI~a [...] , [...] X AN [...] , [...] , [...] [...] 2(N01)# , NUN~b [...] 1(N01)# , UDUNITA~a# [...] , [...] KISZ# [...] , [...] KISZ# [...] 2(N14)# , [...] [...] 2(N01)# , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2863/21. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006187) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006187..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.