Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/3, pl. 202, Bod B 01 (108)
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P249024.
Transliteration
1(barig) kasz dida nag lugal 1(barig) kasz dida saga 1(barig) kasz dida du giri3 ur-nam2-mah gu-za-la2 sza3 tum-al ki ur-asar-lu2-hi-ta ba-zi iti gan-gan-e3 u4 2(disz) ba-zal# mu en# [inanna unu] masz2-e [i3-pa3]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAICAB 1/3, pl. 202, Bod B 01 (108). No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P249024) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P249024..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.