Position in chronology
HLC 310 (pl. 130)
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P110181.
Transliteration
1(ban2) 5(disz) sila3 kasz 1(ban2) 5(disz) sila3 ninda 3(disz) i3-gesz id-gur2 sa2-du11 u4 3(disz)-kam a2-bi-li2 sukkal ha-za-num2-sze3 gen-na nibru-ta gen-na 5(disz) sila3 kasz 5(disz) sila3 ninda 1(disz) i3-gesz id-gur2 giri3-ni-sa6 sukkal 5(disz) sila3 kasz 5(disz) sila3 ninda 1(disz) i3-gesz id-gur2 lu2-ma2-ga-na lu2 tukul-gu-la an-sza-an-ta gen-na iti ezem-dumu-zi
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — HLC 310 (pl. 130). No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P110181) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P110181..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.