Position in chronology
CDLJ 2008/2 §2.16
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P382201.
Transliteration
1(u)# 4(disz)# gurusz u4 1(u) 5(disz)-sze3# a2#-bi 3(gesz2) 3(u) gurusz [a2] gurusz# u4-du8-a-bi 2(u) 1(disz) u4 1(disz)-sze3 kun#-zi#-da i7 pa2#-ri2-ik-tum-ma a-sza3 dal-ba-na kun zu-de3 ba-gi4 ki ku-li-ta ba#-zi# [...] [mu] us2#-sa# [...] x? ti [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CDLJ 2008/2 §2.16. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Erzabtei St. Martin zu Beuron, Beuron, Germany (P382201) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P382201..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.