Position in chronology
BECPL 5
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P464912.
Transliteration
1(u) gurusz u4 2(u)-kam? si2-in-nam-sze3 ma2 gid2-da ma2 si-ga u4 5(disz)-sze3 ma2 ba-al-la lugal-ra us2-sa ugula lu2-giri17-zal kiszib3 a-du dumu lu2-ga mu en-mah-gal ba-hun a-du dub-sar dumu lu2-ga
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — BECPL 5. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, Buffalo, New York, USA (P464912) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P464912..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.