Position in chronology
Nisaba 15, 0437
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P315389.
Transliteration
2(ban2) esir2 [had2] gi ka2? ma2 [...] ma2-gu-la [nin]-hur-sag 6(disz)-x ba-ab-su-ub giri3 lu2-dingir-ra ma2-lah5 iti apin mu szu-suen lugal uri5-[ma-ke4] ma2-gur8-mah en-[lil2] nin-[lil2-ra] mu-ne-[dim2] lugal-im-[ru-a] dub-sar dumu lu2-ab-[u2]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Nisaba 15, 0437. 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: private: anonymous, unlocated (P315389) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P315389..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.