Position in chronology
Berens 039
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105750.
Why it matters
Transliteration
3(gesz2) 2(u) 6(disz) u8 4(gesz2) 1(u) udu-nita2 1(gesz2) sila4 ki gu3-de2-a dumu ug3-IL2-ta lu2-igi-ma-sze3 kuruszda i3-dab5 ugu2-a ga2-ga2 mu en-unu6-gal inanna ba-hun
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Berens 039. 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: Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland (P105750) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105750..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.