Position in chronology
BBVO 11, 290, 6N-T519
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105068.
Transliteration
1(u) 1(disz) <gesz> 1(barig) 5(disz) 5(ban2) 1(disz)# 4(ban2) 5(disz) sila3 2(disz)# 4(ban2) [x] 3(ban2) 5(disz) sila3 [x] 3(ban2) [x] 2(ban2) 5(disz) sila3 2(disz)# 2(ban2) 2(disz) 1(ban2) 5(disz) sila3 2(disz) 1(ban2) 1(disz)# [...] [...] x x x
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — BBVO 11, 290, 6N-T519. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P105068) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105068..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.