Position in chronology
DCS 019
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P213106.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(asz@c) gada sag-ga2# sza3-gu 1(u@c) 4(asz@c) szakkan i3 udu us2 lu2-igi-ma-sze3 i3-DU gu3-de2-a szu ba-ti zi-ga lugal-inim-du10
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Lagash II (ca. 2200-2100 BC)) — DCS 019. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Bibliothèque Nationale et Universitaire de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France (P213106) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P213106..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.