Position in chronology
CST 749
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108266.
Transliteration
4(gesz2) sa gi# gi dam gi gi x [... a]-ra2# 2(disz)-kam [...] x kiszib3# nig2#-lagar#-[e] mu amar-suen#-[ke4] sza#-asz-szu2-ru-um mu-hul nig2-lagar-[e] dub-sar dumu lugal-[gaba] szabra#?
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CST 749. 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 (P108266) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108266..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.