Position in chronology
CST 786
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108293.
Transliteration
[x] udu [x x?] masz2#-szu-gid2-da ki a-kal-la-ta kiszib3 a-du iti sze-kar-ra-gal2-la-a szum2-mu-da mu lugal-bi in-pa3# mu us2-sa si-ma-num2 ba-hul a-du dub-sar dumu lu2-ga aga3-us2 ensi2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CST 786. 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 (P108293) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108293..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.