Position in chronology
MSVO 3, 30
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P005341.
Why it matters
Transliteration
, 1(N57) ZAG~a E2~a UBI~c 1(N05) , PAP~a NAM2 E2~a 1(N01) , SI ZATU786 |GI&GI|# SZA3~a1 1(N01) , NA~a NE~a SZEN~c@t BU~a 1(N01) , AB~a SIG2~d2? URI E2~a 1(N01) , |GI&GI| SZA3~a1 E2~a KID~b KID~b EN~a UR4~b TI 1(N01) , DA~a |DUG~bxDIN| AB2 1(N01) , MASZ2 E2~a AB~a KI
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 3, 30. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: private: unknown, unlocated (P005341) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P005341..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.