Position in chronology
RTC 063
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P221460.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(u@c) 2(asz@c) dug 6(asz@c) sila3 i3 szah2 [U2]-U2 1(asz@c) dug 2(asz@c)#? sila3 gan-ba-ba6 1(asz@c) nin-a-su 1(asz@c) gissu 1(asz@c) dam-da-nu-sa2 ur-igi-ama-sze3 nu-banda3 e2 lu2 esz2-gid2-ka-ka e-de2 URU-KA-gi-na lugal lagasz 5(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — RTC 063. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P221460) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P221460..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.