Position in chronology
RIME 3/1.01.07.063, ex. add099
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P452254.
Transliteration
nin-gesz-zi-da# dingir-ra-ni gu3-de2-a# ensi2# lagasz ur ga2-tum3-du10-ke4# e2 gir2-su-ka-ni# mu-na-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Lagash II (ca. 2200-2100 BC)) — RIME 3/1.01.07.063, ex. add099. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: MU 4028 (Museum of Ancient Cultures, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia) — from Girsu (mod. Tello) ? — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P452254). source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P452254..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.