Position in chronology
DP 142
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P220792.
Transliteration
2(asz@c) 2(ban2) sze-ba sze NE-GI-bar gur saggal sag-nin-gir2-su-da 1(asz@c) 2(barig@c) en-ku3 1(asz@c) 1(barig@c) 1(ban2@c) lugal-sipa szu-nigin2 5(asz@c) la2 3(ban2@c) sze [NE]-GI-[bar] gur [saggal] iti [...] nin-[gir2-su]-ka-ka en-ig-gal nu-banda3 il2-ne e-ne-ba 4(|ASZxDISZ@t|) 4(disz@t) ba-am6 1(asz@c) i7-lu2-sikil dumu ur-nin-mar lu2 inim-ma-ni-zi
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 142. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220792) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P220792..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.