Position in chronology
WF 146
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P011104.
Why it matters
Transliteration
5(N51@f) gi ugula nig2-si 5(N51@f) ba-zi# 5(N51@f)# utu-[di?]-ku5#? 5(N51@f)# utu-x-[x] 1(N51@f) 3(N14@f) sa12-du5 1(N51@f) 2(N14@f) e2#-si 1(N34@ft) 2(N14@f) kisal#-si 2(N51@f)? x x n [...] 1(N51@f) mes!(UM)#-ki#-nu-zu [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC) ?) — WF 146. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, Germany (P011104) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P011104..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.