Position in chronology
BJRL 64, 113 75
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P106869.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(disz) udu niga nanna sza3 gesz-gi ku3-ga giri3 a-a-kal-la sagi u4 1(u)-kam ki a-ba-en-lil2-gin7-ta ba-zi sza3 uri5-ma giri3 ur-szul-gi-ra szar2-ra-ab-du iti ezem-mah mu szu-suen lugal uri5-ma-ke4 e2 szara2 umma-ka mu-du3 2(disz)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — BJRL 64, 113 75. 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: John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK (P106869) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P106869..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.