Position in chronology
MSVO 3, 35
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P005346.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(N01)# , AN MUSZ3~a 1(N01)# , |NUN~a+EN~a|# 4(N39~a) 1(N24) , NAM2 KAB 1(N01) , GAL~a , HI@g~a SZA |U4.3(N08)|? UDU~a E2~a GU 1(N01) , X X
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 3, 35. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P005346) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P005346..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.