Position in chronology
TMH NF 1-2, 112
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P134424.
Why it matters
Transliteration
3(u) sze gur [x] zi-ga ki lugal#-a-ma-ru-ta# ur-dun [...] szu ba-ti iti szu-numun-a u4 4(disz) ba-zal mu i-bi2-suen lugal-e si-mu-ru-um mu-hul ur-dun# dumu da?-[da?]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TMH NF 1-2, 112. 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: Hilprecht Collection, University of Jena, Germany (P134424) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P134424..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.