Position in chronology
RIME 3/1.01.07.048, ex. add083
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P391178.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[nin]-gir2-su [ur]-sag# kal-ga []en#-lil2-la2 [lugal]-a#-ni [gu3]-de2#-a ensi2# lagasz# [lu2] e2#-ninnu [nin]-gir2#-su#-ka [in]-du3#-a [e2-PA e2] ub# imin-a-ni [mu]-na#-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Lagash II (ca. 2200-2100 BC)) — RIME 3/1.01.07.048, ex. add083. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P391178) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P391178..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.