Position in chronology
KM 89094
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P234882.
Transliteration
1(disz) gu4 niga ma#-al#-kum-sze3 u4# 2(u) 4(disz)-kam ki puzur4-en#-lil2#-[ta] giri3 ur#-[en-lil2-la2] szar2-ra-ab#-[du] iti# ezem#-[...] mu szu#-suen# lugal uri5-ma ma-da za-ab-sza-li mu-hul 1(gesz2) gu4 [...] lugal kal#-[ga] lugal uri5#[-ma] [lugal an-ub-da limmu2-ba]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — KM 89094. 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: Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA (P234882) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P234882..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.