Position in chronology
Gudea Statue C
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSRI(i 1) Ninĝišzida is the personal god of Gudea, ruler of Lagaš, who built the E-ana. (ii 1) For Inana, the lady of all lands, his lady, after she had looked at him with her life-giving look, Gudea, (whose) name is everlasting, ruler of Lagaš, the builder of Ninĝirsu's E-ninnu, being a ruler of Lagaš with broad wisdom and a slave who loves his lady, he made a magical drawing on the brick making shed, and made a standard shine at the clay pit. He mixed the clay in a pure place, and made the (first) brick in an undefiled place. He purified the foundation pit by carrying around fire, and anointed…
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions — scholar edition (Vienna).
Scholarly note
Sumerian royal inscription, published in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI) by Gábor Zólyomi and collaborators. Translation reproduced from the ETCSRI edition. ORACC text Q001542.
Attribution
Image: .
Translation excerpted from Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI), University of Vienna, edited by Gábor Zólyomi et al. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/etcsri/Q001542/.
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.