Position in chronology
AAS 017
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P100005.
Transliteration
1(barig) lu2-saga dumu ur-nin-mug-ga 1(barig) ur-isztaran 1(barig) ur-ba-ba6 lu2 gir2-su 1(barig) ur-en-ki lu2 uri5-ma lu2 didli dab5-dab5-ba-me iti sze-kar-ra-gal2-la-ta u4 1(u) 6(disz)-am3 ba-ra-zal sza3 en-nun mu us2-sa en-mah-gal-an-na ba-hun
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAS 017. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: College de France, Paris, France (P100005) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P100005..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.