Position in chronology
Early writing tablet recording the allocation of beer
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: Wikimedia Commons file: File:Early writing tablet recording the allocation of beer.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AEarly_writing_tablet_recording_the_allocation_of_beer.jpg. Description: Early writing tablet recording the allocation of beer; 3100-3000 BC (Late Prehistoric period); height: 9.4 cm, width: 6.87 cm; probably from southern Iraq; British Museum (ME 140855). https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1989-0
Why it matters
Transliteration
Scholarly note
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Early writing tablet recording the allocation of beer; 3100-3000 BC (Late Prehistoric period); height: 9.4 cm, width: 6.87 cm; probably from southern Iraq; British Museum (ME 140855). https://www.brit
Attribution
Image: BabelStone — Wikimedia Commons. source
Translation excerpted from Wikimedia Commons file: File:Early writing tablet recording the allocation of beer.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AEarly_writing_tablet_recording_the_allocation_of_beer.jpg. Description: Early writing tablet recording the allocation of beer; 3100-3000 BC (Late Prehistoric period); height: 9.4 cm, width: 6.87 cm; probably from southern Iraq; British Museum (ME 140855). https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1989-0.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.