Position in chronology
CST 553
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108069.
Transliteration
inim a-sza3 gu2-edin-na inim gu4-la-lu5 inim a-sza3 ka-ma-ri2 iti szu-numun uru4-da inim NI dumu-dumu-ne inim e2-ama-ma2 inim ensi2 u3 a-[x]-la inim tug2 lu2#-sze3 inim ma#-la2 u3 ma2 inim gesz-ur3? ka-ma-ri2 mu-gal2 inim ku3 ARAD2 inim gi-dub-ba-ka nar inim kiri6 dug# nig2 inim x szum2-ma
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CST 553. 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 (P108069) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108069..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.