Position in chronology
NATN 602
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121300.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1/3(disz) ma-na 2(disz) gin2 ku3-babbar 1(asz) 1(barig) 4(ban2) sze gur-ta ab-szi-gar ki ur-suen-ta lugal-ezem szu ba-ti igi lu2-sa6-ga-sze3 igi gub-ba-ni-sze3 iti sze-sag11-ku5# mu us2-sa i-bi2-suen lugal
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 602. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Ibbi-Suen y2 — Year after: Ibbi-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P121300) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121300..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.