Position in chronology
NATN 197
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120895.
Transliteration
3(u) 5(asz) sze gur szesz-da-da 2(barig) imgaga3 lugal-ku3-zu 3(barig) imgaga3 SI-A-a-ti 1(asz) 2(barig) sze gur im-ti-dam 2(disz) gin2 ku3-babbar szu-nisaba 1(disz) gin2 ku3 a-bu-zu-ni 2(disz) gin2 ku3 dam-li-bu-a [x] gin2 ku3 nam-zi-da-ra szunigin 5(disz) 1/2(disz) gin2 ku3-babbar szunigin 3(u) 6(asz) 2(barig) sze gur szunigin 1(asz) imgaga3 gur
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 197. 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 (P120895) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120895..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.