Position in chronology
Nisaba 22, 161
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P406578.
Transliteration
1(ban2) kasz 1(ban2) ninda lugal# 2(disz) i3-gesz id-gur2 sa2-du11 u4 2(disz)-kam 1(disz) dug dida [x] la#-a#?-a-ga sukkal#? 5(disz) sila3 kasz 5(disz)# sila3 ninda 1(disz) sila3 i3-gesz ur-gigir sukkal lu2 tukul-la ma2 muszen-sze3# i7-da gub#-ba#-[me?] 5(disz) sila3 kasz 5(disz) sila3 ninda 1(disz) i3-gesz id-gur2 [x x] x sukkal zi-gum2-ma-sze3 [x]-ne gen-na nibru-ta gen-na iti ezem-[li9]-si4#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Nisaba 22, 161. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (P406578) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P406578..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.