Position in chronology
MAH A.2012-0004
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P429870.
Transliteration
1(gesz'u) 8(gesz2) ku6 al-dar za3 1(u)-bi ib2-gar nig2-dab5 ma2 nesag-ga2#? ki ur-utu-ta kiszib3 lugal-nig2-lagar-e iti sze-sag11-ku5 mu us2-sa sza-asz-szu2-ru-um ba-hul lugal-si-NE-e dub-sar dumu lugal-sa6-ga
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MAH A.2012-0004. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva, Switzerland (P429870) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P429870..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.