Position in chronology
MSVO 1, 030
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P005097.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(N14) 2(N01) , SZE~a# GIBIL# URI3~a# BA#? [...] , [...] , |SZU&SZU|# APIN~a EN~a AN ME~a SZU [...] 2(N14)# 5(N01)# , SZE~a# 3(N04) , 2(N14) 1(N19) 2(N01) , |SZU&SZU| SZE~a GAN2 GI
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 1, 030. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P005097) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P005097..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.