Position in chronology
OIP 121, 589
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124319.
Transliteration
3(disz) gu4 niga bala-a zi-ga iti ezem-me-ki-gal2 giri3 lu2-ba-ba6# mu amar-suen lugal#-e en-unu6-gal inanna unu in#-hun# kiszib3 lu2#-nin-szubur szabra# an-na ugu2-a ga2-ga2-de3 e2-kuruszda ki szara2-kam-ta ba-ba-ti szu# ba-an#-ti [giri3] lugal-iti-da
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — OIP 121, 589. 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: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P124319) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124319..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.