Position in chronology
CST 803
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108310.
Transliteration
1(disz) udu nin-eb-gal 1(disz) udu en-ki 1(disz) udu gu-la |KI.AN| diri-sze3 ba-zi 3(disz) udu szara2 umma 1(disz) udu en-lil2 1(disz) udu amar-suen 2(disz) udu szu-suen 1(disz) udu szara2 |KI.AN| usz-mu 6(disz) udu ku3-sig7-banda3 lu2-ha-ia3 sa2-du11-ga mu-gal2 nig2-ka9-a nu-un-zi
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CST 803. 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 (P108310) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108310..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.