Position in chronology
CST 535
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108051.
Why it matters
Transliteration
kiri6 kar-ra 1(iku) GAN2 al ba-ab-ak# tukum-bi sag u4 2(u) iti pa4-u2-e ur-si-gar-ke4 kiri6-bi nu-un-szum2 a2 al ak-bi iti pa4-u2-e mu i-bi2-suen lugal ur-si-gar dumu a-gu-du szandana-ka
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CST 535. 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: John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK (P108051) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108051..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.