Position in chronology
NYPL 147
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122684.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(disz) kusz gu4 mu 3(disz) 1(disz) kusz gu4 mu 2(disz) ki lu2-kal-la-ta kiszib3 a-a-kal-la iti li9-si4 mu us2-sa szu-suen lugal-e bad3 mar-tu mu-du3 a-kal-la dumu lu2-bulug3-ga2 aszgab-gal
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NYPL 147. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y2 — Year after: Šu-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: New York Public Library, New York, New York, USA (P122684) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122684..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.