Position in chronology
BSNS C12890bis
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P464920.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(disz) ab2-mah2 2(disz@t) 7(disz) ab2 3(disz@t) 7(disz) ab2 2(disz@t) 1(u) ab2 1(disz@t) 3(disz)? gu4-gesz 3(disz) gu4 3(disz@t) 2(disz) gu4 2(disz@t) 1(disz) gu4 1(disz@t) gu4 dam-gar3-ne ki ba-a-ta kiszib3 lu2-nin-gir2-su mu amar-suen lugal lu2-nin-gir2-su dub-sar dumu ba-zi
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — BSNS C12890bis. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Amar-Suen y1 — Amar-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Museum of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, Buffalo, New York, USA (P464920) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P464920..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.