Position in chronology
KM 89096
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P234884.
Transliteration
4(gesz2) 5(u) 1(disz) gu4 ab2 hi-a 5(gesz'u) 8(gesz2) 5(u) 1(disz) udu# masz2 hi-a [x] szum2?-ma be-li2-i3#-li2 ba-x-zi iti ezem#-szu#-suen# x x x mu# szu#-suen# bad3 mar#-tu# mu#-ri#-iq-ti-id#-ni#-im# mu-du3 [...] na-we-er-dingir [x] x 1(disz) ud5
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — KM 89096. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA (P234884) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P234884..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.