Position in chronology
Hermitage 3, 099
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P212216.
Transliteration
la2-ia3 1(u) 6(disz) szah2-gesz-gi 2(u) 4(disz) szah2-iri 1(disz) u5 5(u) 7(disz) uz-tur 1(u) 3(disz) uz 5(u) 6(disz) illat 5(gesz2) 3(u) 2(disz) tu-gur4 la2-ia3 a2-bi2-la-tum iti sze-sag11-ku5 nig2-ka9-bi ba-a-ak
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Hermitage 3, 099. 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 (P212216) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P212216..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.