Position in chronology
Fs Kienast, no. 2
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211730.
Transliteration
er3-e-eb-ra u3-na-a-du11 2(gesz2) sa gi SZID e2 ga2-nun-na ba-kux(KWU147)? guzza-ni he2-na-ab-szum2-mu nam#-mi-gur-re gu-nigin2-na he2-na-ga2-ga2 iti# dumu-zi mu us2-sa ki-masz ba-hul bi2-du11-ga dub-sar dumu la-a-sa6
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Fs Kienast, no. 2. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P211730) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211730..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.