Position in chronology
Hermitage 3, 015
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211842.
Transliteration
1(u) 4(disz) dug dida saga 1(barig) 1(ban2) zi3 sig15 4(ban2) 2(disz) sila3 zi3-dub-dub 2(ban2) 8(disz) sila3 nig2-ar3-ra imgaga3 siskur2 a-sza3 a-gesztin ki?-SI?-x 1(u) 4(disz)-kam giri3 ur-utu? sagi zi-ga iti sze-il2-la mu en nanna masz2-e i3-pa3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Hermitage 3, 015. 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 (P211842) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211842..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.