Position in chronology
NATN 307
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121005.
Transliteration
[...] sze gur masz2-bi-sze3 1(disz) sze-le-bu-um dumu i3-li2-mi-szar i3-li2-mi-szar-e mu 5(disz)-am3 in-de6 nu-da-kar-re-a mu lugal-bi in-pa3 igi tu-ra-am-i3-li2-sze3 igi hu-bi2-dam-sze3 igi ur-szu-mah-sze3 igi lu2-szul-gi-sze3 iti du6-ku3 mu# e2 szara2 umma ba-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 307. 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 (P121005) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121005..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.