Position in chronology
Hermitage 3, 286
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P212081.
Transliteration
1(disz) gu4 niga 1(disz) udu niga 1(disz) gukkal niga 1(disz) masz2-gal niga 1(u) 6(disz) udu 1(u) 1(disz) udu a-lum 4(disz) udu a-lum gesz-du3 1(disz) sila4 a-lum 6(disz) masz2-gal u4 2(u) 1(disz)-kam ki ab-ba-sa6-ga-ta szul-gi-a-a-mu i3-dab5 iti ezem-mah mu en-unu6-gal inanna unu ba-hun 1(disz) gu4 4(u) 1(disz) udu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Hermitage 3, 286. 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 (P212081) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P212081..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.