Position in chronology
NATN 921
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121618.
Transliteration
[...]-zi-da dumu ku3-sa6-ga 1(disz) ur-iszkur i3-du8 e2 [x] 1(disz) usz-lu5 1(disz) lu2-inanna dumu ur-EN-[x] 1(disz) ur-szul-pa-e3 1(disz) ur-du6-ku3 1(disz) ur-szul-pa-e3 maszkim di til-la 1(disz) engar-du10 e2-amar-ka 1(disz) lugal-ezem dub-sar u3-za#-[...] 1(disz) nig2-du11-ga-ni [...] x x [...] mu szu-suen lugal
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 921. 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: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P121618) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121618..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.