MS 4459

~3100 BCE·Uruk Period·P006280

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006280.

Why it matters

Transliteration

[...] , [...]
[...] 4(N14)# [...] , [...] UD5~a# IM~a
2(N14) , UD5~a IM~a TUR E2~b#?
1(N14) , IM~a EN~a NUN~a X
7(N14) , [...]
[...] , [...]
[...] , [...] X
, IM~a PA~a ZATU669 IB~a
X [...] , IM~a# X [...]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 4459. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006280) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006280..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.