Position in chronology
CST 437
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P107952.
Transliteration
1(disz) gu4 u2 u4 2(u) 6(disz)-kam 1(disz) gu4 u2 u4 2(u) 9(disz)-kam ba-usz2 e2-gal-la ba-an-kux(KWU636) ki du-u2-du-ta szul-gi-iri-mu szu ba-an-ti kiszib3 ur-ba-ba6 dumu ur-e2-ninnu iti ezem-me-ki-gal2 mu szu-suen lugal uri5-ma-ke4 na-ru2-a-mah en-lil2 nin-lil2-ra mu-ne-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CST 437. 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 (P107952) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P107952..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.