Position in chronology
NATN 022
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120717.
Transliteration
1(barig) zi3 sig15 du#? 4(asz) 2(barig) 5(ban2) 5(disz) sila3 zi3-ba#?-ba gur 1(u) 4(barig) 1(ban2) 2(disz) sila3 zi3 munu4 gur aga3-us2 sza3 puzur4-da-gan ki suen-ga-szi-id-ta kiszib3 nu-ur2-be-li2 iti ezem-[szu]-suen mu ma2 x x ba#-du8
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 022. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P120717) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120717..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.