Position in chronology
CST 168
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P107680.
Transliteration
5(disz) udu niga 5(disz) masz2-gal niga e2-muhaldim-sze3 mu lu2 kin-gi4-a lu2 mar-da-ma-ni lu2 kin-gi4-a lu2 ha-bu-ra u3 kas4-ke4-ne-sze3 ARAD2-mu maszkim iti u4 1(u) 4(disz) ba-zal sza3 nibru ki lu2-dingir-ra-ta ba-zi iti u5-bi2-gu7 mu us2-sa ki-masz ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CST 168. 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 (P107680) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P107680..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.