Position in chronology
NATN 914
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121611.
Transliteration
1(disz) szah2-ze2-da ki-a-nag amar-suen-ka-sze3 ezem ab-e3 giri3 hu-ba u4 1(disz)-kam# iti-ta u4 1(u) 3(disz) ba-zal# zi-ga ki ba-a-zi sza3 nibru iti ezem-mah mu szu-suen lugal uri5-ma-ke4 bad3 mar-tu mu-ri-iq-ti-id-ni-im mu-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 914. 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: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P121611) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121611..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.