Position in chronology
Sumerian - Protoliterate Tablet - Walters 41219 - View A
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: Wikimedia Commons file: File:Sumerian - Protoliterate Tablet - Walters 41219 - View A.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASumerian_-_Protoliterate_Tablet_-_Walters_41219_-_View_A.jpg. Description: From a unique group of early documents recording the transfer of land (in this case one "b'uru"- about 150 acres), this tablet illustrates the transition from a writing system based on pictures to one where signs represent sounds. The vase
Why it matters
Transliteration
Scholarly note
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: From a unique group of early documents recording the transfer of land (in this case one "b'uru"- about 150 acres), this tablet illustrates the transition from a writing system based on pictures to one
Attribution
Image: Anonymous ( Sumer ) Unknown author — Wikimedia Commons. source
Translation excerpted from Wikimedia Commons file: File:Sumerian - Protoliterate Tablet - Walters 41219 - View A.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASumerian_-_Protoliterate_Tablet_-_Walters_41219_-_View_A.jpg. Description: From a unique group of early documents recording the transfer of land (in this case one "b'uru"- about 150 acres), this tablet illustrates the transition from a writing system based on pictures to one where signs represent sounds. The vase.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.