Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/2, pl. 143, 1971-359
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P248872.
Transliteration
4(u) 4(disz) tug2 sag usz-bar ki-la2-bi 2(asz) gu2 3(u) 1(disz) 1/2(disz) ma-na siki pesz5-a giri3 ur-du10-nun-na 5(u) 1(disz) tug2 guz-za du ki-la2-bi 3(asz) gu2 2(disz) ma-na 1(u) gin2 giri3 ku3-ga-ni ki ur-e11-e#-[ta] lu2-banda3 szu [ba-ti] gaba-ri kiszib3 [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAICAB 1/2, pl. 143, 1971-359. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P248872) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P248872..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.