Nik 1, 289

~2400 BCE·Early Dynastic·P222058

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P222058.

Transliteration

3(asz@c) sze-du10
2(asz@c) gul-bu
3(asz@c) u3-suh5 szu-dim2
2(u@c) la2 1(asz@c) asal2
iti lugal-iri-bar-ra-ke4
a tu5-a-a
en-ig-gal
nu-banda3
kiri6-ta
na i3-ni-ri
e2 ki-sal4-la-ka
i3-kux(DU) 3(|ASZxDISZ@t|)

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 289. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P222058) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P222058..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.