Position in chronology
Aegyptus 27, 036, 27
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P100260.
Transliteration
1(disz) sila4 utu mu-kux(DU) zabar-dab5 er3-ra-na-da maszkim u4 4(disz)-kam ki na-sa6-ta ba-zi iti szu-esz5-sza mu ha-ar-szi ki-masz hu-ur5-ti u3 ma-da-bi u4 asz-a ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Aegyptus 27, 036, 27. 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 (P100260) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P100260..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.