Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 0705
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P324275.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(disz) sila3 1(u) 1(disz) gin2 i3-gesz 5(ban2) 2(disz) sila3 1(u) 5(disz) gin2 naga si-e3 9(disz) ma-na im-babbar2 7(disz) 1/2(disz) gin2 siki du mu tug2-ga-sze3 ki iszkur-illat-ta puzur4-a-ku-um szu ba-ti iti sze-sag11-ku5 mu us2-sa szu-suen lugal-e ma2-gur8-mah en-lil2 nin-lil2-ra mu-ne-dim2 szu-kab-ta a-zu dumu na-ra-am-i3-li2 puzur4-a-ku-um lu2 azlag2 ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 0705. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y3 — Year after: Great barge for Enlil and Ninlil fashioned based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA (P324275) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P324275..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.