Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/1, pl. 025, 1911-190
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P142702.
Transliteration
1(barig) 4(ban2) sze lugal ur-saga 1(barig) 1(ban2) 4(disz) sila3 sze lu2-du10-ga sze-ba guru7-a ku5-ra2 [...] sze ur5-ra x lu2-szul-gi-ka iti szu-numun-na mu szu-suen lugal lu2-e2-mah dub-sar dumu ur-li9-si4 ensi2 umma
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAICAB 1/1, pl. 025, 1911-190. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y1 — Šu-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P142702) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P142702..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.