Position in chronology
TMH 05, 060
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P020474.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(u@c) lu2 3(iku@c) GAN2-ta 1(bur3@c) ugula lugal-ra 2(u@c) 1(asz@c) lu2 3(iku@c) GAN2-ta 1(bur3@c) ugula inanna-ur-sag szu-nigin2 8(bur3@c) 2(esze3@c) 3(iku@c) GAN2 GAN2 ama-ra
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — TMH 05, 060. 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 (P020474) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P020474..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.