Position in chronology
SA 045
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P128587.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(gesz2)? kaskal wa#-at#-ra-at ugula iti-ta u4 8(disz) ba-ta-zal mu-kux(DU) szul-gi-si2-im-tum a2-bi2-la-tum i3-dab5 sza3 tum-ma-al iti a2-ki-ti mu sza-asz-ru ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SA 045. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Amar-Suen y6 — Šašru destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Institut Catholique, Paris, France ? (P128587) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P128587..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.