Position in chronology
Šu-ilišu 1
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSRI(1) When Šu-ilišu, the powerful man, king of Urim, brought home (the statue of) Nanna from Anšan to Urim, then for Nanna, the most outstanding among the Anuna gods, his master, he built the Dublamah, his place of rendering judgement. He installed for him a decorated two-wing door, and dedicated it to him for his well-being. (19) Whoever gives order to perform a misdeed against this (door), transfers it to a storehouse, or makes another man raise his hand against it on account of this curse, may Nanna, my master, and Ningal, my lady, curse him!
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions — scholar edition (Vienna).
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 Q001934.
Attribution
Image: .
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/Q001934/.
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.