Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/2, pl. 133, 1971-319
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P248833.
Transliteration
1(asz) 1(barig) 1(ban2) 2(disz) sila3 sze gur lugal nig2-dab5 gu2-en u3# ma2-gur8-ra# |KI.AN|#-ta [ki] ARAD2#-ta [x]-[x]-x-[...] szu# ba-ti iti sze-sag11#-ku5 mu ur-bi2-i3-lum ba-hul ur-da-mu dumu e2-ig
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAICAB 1/2, pl. 133, 1971-319. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P248833) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P248833..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.