Position in chronology
Orient 55, 170 no. 18
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P424383.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(disz) gin2 ku3-babbar ur5-sze3 ki lugal-ku3-zu dam-gar3-ta u-bar i3-du8 nin-lil2-la2 szu ba-ti iti sig4 u4 8(disz) ba-zal mu szu-suen lugal-e ma-da za-ab-sza-li mu-hul u-bar i3-du8 nin-lil2-la2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Orient 55, 170 no. 18. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y6 — Land of Zabšali destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA (P424383) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P424383..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.