Position in chronology
JCS 37, 108
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P112174.
Transliteration
1(u) 3(disz) geme2# u4 1(disz)-sze3# ka i7!(A) kunigara(|MUSZ&MUSZ|)-ka sahar si-ga ugula ur-nin-tu kiszib3 da-da-ga iti sze-sag11-ku5 mu us2-sa si-ma-num2[ ba-hul] da-da-ga dub-sar dumu ur-[nigar szusz3]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — JCS 37, 108. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P112174) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P112174..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.