Position in chronology
CDLB 2010/001 3
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P393061.
Transliteration
1(disz) sila4 niga 3(disz) sila4 ga ur-szu i3-dab5 3(disz) sila4 ga uri5-ki-du10 i3-dab5 sa2-du11 lugal ki a-hu-we-er-ta ba-zi iti a2-ki-ti mu szu-suen lugal uri5-ma-ke4 na-ru2-a-mah en-lil2 nin-lil2-ra mu-ne-du3 7(disz) udu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CDLB 2010/001 3. 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: private: Hulin, Linda, Oxford, UK (P393061) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P393061..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.