Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/3, pl. 228, Bod S 203
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P249111.
Transliteration
1(asz) sze gur sza3-bi-ta 1(barig)# sze sza3-gal gu4 dah-hu iti# sze-sag11-ku5 u4 1(u)-kam 4(disz) gu4 niga 6(disz) sila3 sze-ta u4# 3(disz)-sze3 sze-bi 1(barig) 1(ban2) 2(disz) sila3 2(barig)# n sze sza3-gal gu4 niga nibru#-sze3 de6 szunigin 1(asz) 1(ban2) 2(disz) sila3 sze gur zi-ga-am3 iti sig4-i3-szub-gar mu us2-sa en inanna masz2-e i3-pa3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAICAB 1/3, pl. 228, Bod S 203. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P249111) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P249111..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.