Position in chronology
NATN 359
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121057.
Transliteration
1(disz) 1/3(disz) gin2 6(disz) sze ku3-babbar masz2 1(disz) gin2 igi-6(disz)-gal2 6(disz) sze-ta x-x-dam [...] x [...] x zu USZ x [...]-x dub-sar-sze3 [iti] sze-sag11-ku5 mu# us2-sa en nanna uri5-ma ba-hun bur-ma-ma dumu ma-nu-um-li-x
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 359. 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 (P121057) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121057..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.