Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 0326
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P329454.
Transliteration
4(gesz2) sig4 szar#-ru-um-ba-ni 4(gesz2) puzur4-i-szum 4(gesz2) a-hu-ni [...] [...] [...] ga6#? [...] iti a2-ki-ti# mu szu-suen lugal uri5-ma-ke4 na-ru2-a-mah en-lil2 nin-lil2-ra mu-ne-du3 ga-ga# [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 0326. 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: Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA (P329454) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P329454..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.