Position in chronology
Aegyptus 17, 052 049
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P100214.
Transliteration
4(disz) udu niga 1(disz) sila4 niga lugal-pa-e3 4(disz) udu 1(disz) sila4 ensi2 pu-us2 1(disz) sila4 ensi2 gir2-su 1(disz) sila4 ARAD2-mu mu-kux(DU) iti ezem-mah mu en nanna masz-e i3-pa3 u4 1(u) 1(disz)-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Aegyptus 17, 052 049. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Museo di Antichità di Torino, Turin, Italy (P100214) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P100214..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.