Position in chronology
NATN 940
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121637.
Transliteration
1(asz) sze gur masz2 1(asz) gur 1(barig) 4(ban2)-ta ki ri-ba-ga-da-ta ur-li szu ba-ti iti kin-inanna mu en inanna unu masz2-e i3-pa3 1(disz) a2-zi-da 1(disz) lugal-ma2-gur8-re szu-i 1(disz) i-ri-ib nar lu2-inim-ma-bi-me iti sig4 su-su-dam mu lugal-bi in-pa3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 940. 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 (P121637) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121637..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.