Position in chronology
MS 4571
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006340.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] 1(N14)# , [...] U8 5(N14)# 7(N01)# , UDUNITA~a [...] 1(N14)# 4(N01)# , X 1(N34) [...] 6(N01)# , UD5~a# [...] 6(N01)#? , MASZNITA# , UDU~a# E2~b#? [...] [...] 3(N14)# 7(N01)#? , KIR11 5(N14)#? , KUR~a SILA4~c 3(N14)# 1(N01)# , SAL MASZ 2(N14) , KUR~a# MASZ# 3(N01)# , SILA4~c#? X , AN X [...] ,
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 4571. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006340) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006340..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.