Position in chronology
Lugal-zage-si 1
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSRI(i 1) For Dumuzid, king of E. (i 3) Lugal-zage-si, ruler of Umma, lumah priest of Nisaba, child of Bubu, ruler of Umma, lumah priest of Nisaba, built his temple for Dumuzid, king of E, for his well-being. He drove in its foundation pegs, and put its divine powers in good order. (ii 6) He built the temple of Lisi. He built the temple of Nisaba. He built the E-ĝidru of Umma. He built the E-ĝidru of Ki'an.
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions — scholar edition (Vienna).
Scholarly note
Sumerian royal inscription, published in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI) by Gábor Zólyomi and collaborators. Translation reproduced from the ETCSRI edition. ORACC text Q003657.
Attribution
Image: .
Translation excerpted from Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI), University of Vienna, edited by Gábor Zólyomi et al. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/etcsri/Q003657/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.