Position in chronology
TRU 085
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P134849.
Transliteration
6(disz) udu 4(disz) masz2 masz2-da-re-a sipa-ne ki szu-er3-ra-ta nu-ur2-suen i3-dab5 giri3 sipa-lu-ab-x szabra x-ke4-ne iti sze-sag11-ku5 mu sza-asz-ru ba-hul nu-ur2-suen dub-sar dumu i-di3-er3-[ra]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TRU 085. 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 (P134849) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P134849..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.