Position in chronology
BBVO 11, 291, 6N-T565
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105071.
Transliteration
a-li-a-hi dal-ba-at 3(ban2) nin-ama5-ni-sze3 3(ban2) nin-igi-bar 3(ban2) nin-gal-zu 3(ban2) sza3-igi-kar2 nin-he2#-gal2# 3(ban2)# nin-en3#-tar-mu geme2-szul-pa-e3 szunigin szunigin 2(barig) 3(ban2) ziz2 iti kin-inanna u4 1(u) 8(disz) ba-zal
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — BBVO 11, 291, 6N-T565. 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 (P105071) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105071..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.