Position in chronology
NYPL 140
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122676.
Transliteration
la2-ia3 1(disz) dur3 mu 3(disz) 6(disz) ud5 masz2 hi-a la2-ia3-am3 diri 1(disz) udu bar-gal2 1(disz) ma-na siki-gi diri-ga-am3 diri la2-ia3 mu-kux(DU) szara2 |KI.AN| kiszib3 ur-dun mu amar-suen lugal-e sza-asz-ru mu-hul ur-dun dub-sar dumu da-da
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NYPL 140. 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: New York Public Library, New York, New York, USA (P122676) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122676..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.