RTC 257

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P217029.

Why it matters

Transliteration

la2-ia3 3(u) la2 1(asz@c) [...] ki
la2-ia3-am3
lu2-szara2
4(asz@c) gu2 2(u) ma-na
amar [...]
[...]-si
mu nin-dingir iszkur masz-e ba-pa3-da

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Lagash II (ca. 2200-2100 BC) ?) — RTC 257. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P217029) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P217029..

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

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.

~3500 BCE

Kish Tablet

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.

~2450 BCE

Stele of the Vultures

The earliest historical document in human history.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.