Position in chronology
MSVO 3, 31
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P005342.
Why it matters
Transliteration
4(N01) , SZUBUR NU 4(N01) , KAB BU~a 1(N14) , SI AB~b 1(N14) 2(N01) , NE~a SZITA~a3 PAP~a 3(N57) 2(N01) , NIMGIR ZATU703 2(N01) , BU~a NUN~a DU DA~a 1(N14) 2(N01) , KALAM~b PA~a 4(N01) , ZI~a A 4(N01) , GISZ#? X PIRIG~b1# BU~a 2(N01) , 3(N57) [...] 2(N01) , NE~a PAP~a# [...] 2(N01) , DA~a [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 3, 31. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Land Berlin, Berlin, Germany (P005342) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P005342..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.