Position in chronology
MS 4486
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006289.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(N39~a) 1(N57) 1(N39~a) 1(N24) 1(N26) , SZE~a 2(N01) , SUHUR BA 3(N01) , 4(N57) SUHUR 1(N08) 1(N57) 1(N08) , MU SZESZ~a MAH~a GIR~b 2(N01) , SZESZ~a ZATU714 |ZATU759xKU6~a| 3(N08)# [...] , SZESZ~a MAH~a [...] , [...] SUHUR#? KU6~a 2(N14) , AB~b |KU6~a+KU6~a| 1(N02) 1(N01) , ZATU846 1(N02) 2(N01) , KI@n UZ~a 1(N01) , UDU~a |MAH~axX| 1(N08) , AB~b GIR~b 4(N08) , |(SUKUD+SUKUD)~b| X , MU
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 4486. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006289) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006289..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.