Position in chronology
Aegyptus 29, 107, 36
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P100269.
Transliteration
1(disz) ab2 3(disz) udu 1(disz) masz2-gal 1(disz) ud5 1(disz) sila4 ga ba-usz2 u4 6(disz)-kam ki szul-gi-a-a-mu-ta szul-gi-iri-mu szu ba-ti iti ezem-nin-a-zu mu en-unu6-gal inanna ba-hun 1(disz) gu4 6(disz) udu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Aegyptus 29, 107, 36. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Amar-Suen y4 — En-unugal of Inanna installed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Museo di Antichità di Torino, Turin, Italy (P100269) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P100269..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.