Position in chronology
AGGT 053
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P491929.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x] a2#-[GAM? i3 x] lu2 nin-[x-x] 1(disz) gu#-[za] 1(disz) [...] 4(disz) lu2 DUMU-ru-x-sza 1(disz) gudu4 nin-gesz-zi-da 1(disz) ur-kun 3(disz) gudu4 en-[lil2] 3(u) lu2 ensi2# nibru zi#-[ga] [szara2-i3-sa6]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Lagash II (ca. 2200-2100 BC)) — AGGT 053. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P491929) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P491929..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.