Position in chronology
Babyloniaca 07, 068 7 = 68 8 = 73 7
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P104756.
Transliteration
pisan-dub-ba sze de6-a ur-lamma ensi2 mu kar2-har a-ra2 3(disz)-kam ba-hul mu an-sza-an mu us2-sa an-sza-an mu nanna kar-zi#-da# mu bad3 ma#-da mu e2 puzur4-isz-da-gan sze de6-a iri igi 6(disz) gar-ra sze de6-a gur-gi mu sza-asz-ru-um ba-hul nig2-du12-du12? sze mu e2 puzur4-isz-da-gan sze de6-a mu us2-sa e2 puzur4-isz-da-gan a2 hun-ga2 a-sza3 du6-ge6 uri5#-ma
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Babyloniaca 07, 068 7 = 68 8 = 73 7. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, USA (P104756) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P104756..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.