Position in chronology
MCS 8, 66 AO 8044
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P112874.
Transliteration
5(u) 3(asz) 2(barig) sze gur lugal sze szuku-ra engar dumu da-ba u3 dumu-gu4-gur i3-dub a-sza3 la-za-wi-ta ki nimgir-an-ne2-zu-ta lugal-iri-da szu ba-ti mu si-mu-ru-um u3? lu-lu-bu a-ra2 1(u) la2 1(disz@t)-kam ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MCS 8, 66 AO 8044. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P112874) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P112874..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.