Position in chronology
Warad-Sin 11
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSRI(1) For Inana of Zabalam, my lady, for my well-being, and for the well-being of Kudur-mabuk, the father who begot me, (I), Warad-Sin, king of Larsam, built her holy high temple, a residence of warriors, I raised it as high as a mountain. (14) May she be as delighted with me because of my deeds as to grant me a life of long days as a reward!
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions — scholar edition (Vienna).
Why it matters
Warad-Sin dedicates a temple to Inana at Zabalam and names Kudur-mabuk as his father, anchoring the Elamite-origin dynasty of Larsa within the traditional Sumerian gesture of piety-for-longevity.
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 Q002115.
Attribution
Image: NYPLC — (New York Public Library, New York, New York, USA) — from Zabalam (mod. Ibzaikh) ? — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P413904). source
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/Q002115/.
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.