Position in chronology
Berens 027
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105738.
Transliteration
3(u) 2(asz) 4(barig) 5(ban2) 7(disz) sila3 sze gur lugal a2 lu2 hun-ga2 ki du-du-ta ur-suen szu ba-ti a-sza3 a-sag-du3-du?! a-ta#? e3#?-a mu us2-sa ki-[masz] mu us2-sa-bi
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Berens 027. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland (P105738) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P105738..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.