Position in chronology
AnOr 01, 156
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P101147.
Transliteration
1(disz) kusz sila4 du10-gan dih3 bala-a-sze3 ki a-kal-la-ta kiszib3 ensi2-ka iti li9-si4 mu szu-suen lugal szu-suen lugal kal-ga lugal uri5-ma lugal an-ub-da limmu2-ba a-a-[kal-la] ensi2# umma ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AnOr 01, 156. 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: Bibliothèque Nationale et Universitaire de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France (P101147) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P101147..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.