Position in chronology
CST 070
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P107582.
Transliteration
3(u) udu sa2-du11 gu-la sza3 uri5-ma 2(u) 7(disz) udu 3(disz) masz2 ba-usz2 mu ur-ra-sze3 dingir-ba-ni sipa ur-ke4 szu ba-ti zi-ga ki na-sa6 iti ezem-szul-gi mu si-mu-ru-um u3 lu-lu-bu a-ra2 1(u) la2 1(disz)-kam-asz ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CST 070. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK (P107582) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P107582..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.