Position in chronology
MS 4495
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006298.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(N46) 3(N20) 3(N05) 3(N42~a) 1(N25) , SZE~a 8(N20) 1(N05) 3(N42~a) , HI@g~a X 1(N46)# 3(N20)# 3(N05)# 3(N42~a)# 1(N25)# , SZE~a# 8(N20) 1(N05) 3(N42~a) , HI@g~a 2(N46) 1(N20)#? 5(N05)#? 1(N42~a)#? 1(N25)# , HI@g~a# SZE~a BA
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 4495. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006298) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006298..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.