Position in chronology
AO 03424
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P491936.
Transliteration
5(disz) e2-da 3(u) mi-ri2-za lum diri#! kiszib3-ba-sze3# giri3#-x-x 2(u) mi-ri2-za tukul ga2-ga2-sze3 ur-nig2 szabra zi-ga lugal-nigin6
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AO 03424. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P491936) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P491936..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.