Position in chronology
AnOr 01, 042
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P101033.
Transliteration
[...] gur mu BI#? [...] x mu us2-sa [...] [...] 3(barig) gur mu e2 puzur4-da-gan ba-du3 [...] 1(asz) gur mu us2-sa e2 puzur4-da-gan ba-du3 szunigin 2(gesz2) 5(u) 9(asz) 3(barig) sze gur sag-nig2-gur11-ra-kam sza3-bi-ta [...] 2(gesz2) [x] 4(ban2) 2(disz) sila3 sze [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AnOr 01, 042. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Bibliothèque Nationale et Universitaire de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France (P101033) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P101033..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.