Anonymous 270812

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P270812.

Why it matters

Transliteration

1(asz@c) ab-ba
2(asz@c) e2-kur-nin
2(asz@c) x-nin
1(asz@c) ur-ganun
1(asz@c) ab-zu-zu
2(asz@c) ur-nagar
1(asz@c) U2-U2-a
2(asz@c) pa4-pa4
1(u@c) 2(asz@c) sze gur
u4 1(asz@c) gin2 ag2
5(ban2@c) U2-U2-a
4(ban2@c) lugal-he2

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Anonymous 270812. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: private: anonymous, unlocated (P270812) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P270812..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.