Position in chronology
PPAC 4, 209
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P332128.
Transliteration
1(u) udu u2 2(u) masz2-gal u2 szu-gid2 ki puzur4-en-lil2-la2-ta ur-ku3-nun-na i3-dab5 iti masz-da3-gu7 mu szu-suen lugal uri5-ma-ke4 e2 szara2 umma# mu-du3 szu-suen lugal kal-ga lugal uri5-ma lugal an-ub-da limmu2-ba ur-ku3-nun-na dub-sar dumu lu2-[nin-gir2-su kuruszda] ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — PPAC 4, 209. 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: Couvent Sainte-Anne, Jerusalem (P332128) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P332128..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.