Position in chronology
USC 6556
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P235369.
Transliteration
2(gesz'u)? 4(gesz2)? 5(u) 4(disz) gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3 la2-ia3 mu sza-asz-ru ba-hul 5(u) 7(asz) 1(barig) 4(ban2) 2/3(disz) sila3 sze gur mu en-unu6-gal inanna-ke4 ba-ab-IL2? i7#-pa-e3#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — USC 6556. 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: Archaeological Research Collection, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA (P235369) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P235369..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.