Position in chronology
TCNU 518
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P135364.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(asz) 2(barig) zu2-lum gur zu2-lum giri3-lam! esz3-esz3 3(disz)-a-bi sza3 a2 u4-da giri3 lu2-nin-szubur ki szandana-ke4-ne kiszib3 hu-wa-wa mu szu-suen lugal lu2-eb-gal dub-sar dumu ur-ge6-par4 gudu4 inanna
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TCNU 518. 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: Museo di Antichità di Torino, Turin, Italy (P135364) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P135364..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.