Position in chronology
Gudea Statue F
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSRI(1) Gudea, ruler of Lagaš, devotee of Ĝatumdug. (i 1) Gudea, ruler of Lagaš, devotee of Ĝ̃atumdug, your beloved slave, who made an eternal thing appear and built Ninĝirsu's E-ninnnu-anzud-babbar, to whom Ĝ̃atumdug, his lady, gave birth in the shining sanctuary of Lagaš, her beloved city, was eager to build the temple of Ĝ̃atumdug, the mother of Lagaš, his lady. (ii 6) Being a ruler of Lagaš with broad wisdom, and a slave reverent of his lady, Gudea made a magical drawing on the brick making shed, and made a standard shine at the clay pit. He mixed the clay in a holy place, and made the…
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 Q001545.
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/Q001545/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.