Position in chronology
AO 03428
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P491938.
Transliteration
1(disz) tug2 a2-bu-um 2(disz) tug2 mu-du8-um saga 2(disz) gada du e2-du10-us2-ta 8(disz) gu2-e3 6(disz) tug2 nig2-lam2 saga# 1(disz) gada du e2#-dub#?-ba-du3 ur#-szul szu ba#-ti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AO 03428. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P491938) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P491938..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.