Position in chronology
NATN 207
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120905.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(gesz2) 5(asz) ziz2 gur lugal-ezem szabra ad-da-kal-la 5(u) 8(asz) 1(barig) 2(ban2) gur 1(gesz2) 6(asz) 4(barig) 2(ban2) gur 6(asz) x ziz2 gur lu2-nin-szubur szabra ur-suen 3(gesz2) 1(u) 6(asz) gur mu-kux(DU) guru7 iti sig4-a mu i-bi2-suen lugal
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 207. 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: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P120905) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120905..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.