Position in chronology
Ur-Nanše 09
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSRI(i 1) Ur-Nanše, king of Lagaš, child of Gunidu, citizen of Gursar, built the shrine of Ĝirsu. (ii 3) He fashioned (the statue of) Šul-šagana. He fashioned (the statue of) Gušudu. He fashioned (the statue of) Kindazid.He built the temple of Ninmarki. He fashioned (the statue of) Lama-u-e. (iii 7) He dug the A-suhur-canal. He dug the Eg-tirsig-canal. He dug the great ... of the Enlile-pada-canal. He dug the ... of the Surdugin-du-canal. He dug the Nin-REC107-ba-du. (v 5) He is a man, who submits to the orders of Nanše.
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 Q001027.
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/Q001027/.
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.