Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 0349
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P322929.
Transliteration
[n gurusz szitim lu2]-i3-si-in [2(disz)] gurusz szitim lu2 nig2-ba-[ba6] 2(disz) gurusz [szitim] 1(u) 6(disz) gurusz ugula i-ri-ib ARAD2 e2-A-me-esz2 [5(disz)] gurusz 1(disz) geme2 lu2-du6-lugal-pa-e3 [n] geme2 ugula ba-zi [n x] ugula [za]-la-a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 0349. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA (P322929) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P322929..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.