Position in chronology
Berens 044
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105755.
Why it matters
Transliteration
x x x x x x [...]-ba#-ta ARAD2#-dam i3-dab5 iti# munu4-gu7 mu szu-suen lugal mu szu-suen lugal ARAD2-dam dumu dumu-zi-da# unu3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Berens 044. 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: Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland (P105755) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105755..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.