Position in chronology
CDLJ 2012/1 §4.56
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P416422.
Transliteration
1(disz) masz2 a-dara4 4(disz) ud5 dara4# 1(disz) sila4 ga a-udu hur#-sag# 3(disz) masz-da3 1(disz) amar# masz-da3 ba-usz2 u4 1(u) 6(disz)-kam ki lu2-dingir-ra-ta ur-nigar szu ba-ti iti masz-da3-gu7 mu us2-sa ki-masz u3 hu-ur5-ti ba-[hul]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CDLJ 2012/1 §4.56. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, USA (P416422) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P416422..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.