Position in chronology
MSVO 3, 63
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P005374.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(N34)# 3(N14) , GAL~a TE 1(N34) 2(N45) 4(N14) , GAL~a SA~c# 7(N14)#? , EN~c# SAL# 8(N14)# 1(N01)# , ZAG~a E2~b 7(N14)# , KINGAL# 5(N14)# , KINGAL# 3(N14)# , GAL~a# TE 5(N01)# , GAL~a SA~c 3(N34) 2(N45) 8(N14) , SZE~a KU~b2 SZIM~a SI4~f NI~a SA~c
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 3, 63. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Land Berlin, Berlin, Germany (P005374) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P005374..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.