Position in chronology
JCS 52, 043 48
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P145842.
Transliteration
2(disz) gu4 niga 5(disz)-kam us2 a2-ge6-ba-a 2(disz) gu4 niga en-lil2 nin-lil2 lugal kux(KWU636)#-ra u4 2(u) 2(disz)-kam# ki puzur4-en-lil2-ta ba-zi giri3 ip-qu2-sza szar2-ra-ab-du iti ezem-szul-gi mu szu-suen lugal uri5-ma-ke4 ma2-gur8-mah []en#-lil2 nin-lil2-ra [mu]-ne#-dim2 4(disz)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — JCS 52, 043 48. 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: Arizona State Museum, Tucson, Arizona, USA (P145842) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P145842..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.