Position in chronology
JMEOS 12, 41 3488
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P112310.
Transliteration
5/6(disz) ma-na ku3-babbar sze-bi 5(u) gur nig2-sa10-bi-sze3 engar nin-gir2-su lugal-dumu-zi [u3] ur#-szusz3-ba-ba6-ke4 [szu] ba-ti giri3 ka5-a-mu dub-sar iti sze-il2#-[la] mu e2 szara2 umma ba-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — JMEOS 12, 41 3488. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Manchester Museum, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK (P112310) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P112310..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.