Position in chronology
Ur-Nanše 06a
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSRI(Caption 1, i 1) Ur-Nanše, child of Gunidu, ruler of Lagaš, built the Ebgal. (Caption 3, 1) Men-barag-abzu, spouse of Ur-Nanše, ruler of Lagaš. (Caption 4, 1) Nin-usura, child of Ur-Nanše, ruler of Lagaš. (Main text, i 1) Ur-Nanše, child of Gunidu, ruler of Lagaš, built the Ebgal. (Main text, ii 1') ... established šontrol of the Dilmun-boats (šoming) from the foreign šountries. (Main text, iii 9) He captured .... (Main text, iv 3) He dug .... (Main text, v 4) He fashioned (the statue of) Kindazid.
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 Q003641.
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/Q003641/.
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.