Position in chronology
Akkadica 135/1, 100-101 14
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P480078.
Transliteration
1(u) gu2 pa ma:nu e2-kikken2 ba-ba saga ki e2-ur2-bi-du10-ta na-ba-sa2 szu ba-ti kiszib3 ku3-nin-ur4-ra sza3 bala-a mu i-bi2-suen lugal# ku3-nin-ur4-ra dub-[sar] dumu na-[silim]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Akkadica 135/1, 100-101 14. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Ibbi-Suen y1 — Ibbi-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: DMMA AA.TC.65 (Département des Monnaies, Médailles et Antiques, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France) — from Umma (mod. Tell Jokha) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P480078). source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P480078..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.