Position in chronology
TMH 05, 027
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P020441.
Why it matters
Transliteration
3(asz@c) munus 2(asz@c)-sag-kam 8(asz@c) nita 2(disz@t)#?-kam-sze3 1(u@c) lu2 a-ba-en-lil2 dumu# ur-nin-a-zu5 [en]-lil2#-sipa [...] USZ ka-ba-ke4 i3-ta-gur 1(asz@c) szu-ku6 igi-mu i3-ta-du 3(asz@c) lu2 en-lil2-sipa
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — TMH 05, 027. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Hilprecht Collection, University of Jena, Germany (P020441) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P020441..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.