Position in chronology
MCS 7, 28 Liv 51 63 125
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P112853.
Transliteration
[...]-i3-li2 [...]-da x-e2-nig2 [x]-nin-su dumu ab-ba-saga [x] x [...] x-[...]-[lu2] x-zi-mu ga-IL2 [x] ti [x-x] [x]-ku3?-sahar? [x]-kal?-la kiszib3 nu-ra-a [(x)]-du# ugula [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MCS 7, 28 Liv 51 63 125. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: World Museum Liverpool, Liverpool, UK (P112853) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P112853..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.