Position in chronology
Nisaba 30, 63
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P332385.
Transliteration
1(disz) gu4 u2 8(disz) udu u2 7(disz) masz2-gal u2 e2-muhaldim mu geme2 dumu an-nu-ni-tum-ke4-ne-sze3 [...] [...] [...] [...] iti ezem-an#-na# mu szu-suen lugal-e si-ma-num2 mu-hul 1(disz) gu4 1(u) 5(disz) udu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Nisaba 30, 63. 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, New York, New York, USA (P332385) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P332385..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.