Position in chronology
RTC 003
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P010557.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] x [n] zi#-zu-x [n] nimgir#-na-me-ub-x 2(asz@c) ne-x [...] [n] a-en-da 4(asz@c) e2-gissu 1(u@c) munus-en-da 4(asz@c) USZ [...] 2(u@c) [(x)]-nin-[x] x-[x]-x
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — RTC 003. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P010557) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P010557..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.