Position in chronology
NYPL 062
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122598.
Transliteration
1(gesz'u) 1(gesz2) sar gi zex(SIG7)-a 1(u) 2(disz) sar-ta a2-bi u4 5(u) 5(disz) a2 sza3-gu4-ka a-sza3 a-gesztin-na giri3 nu-ur2-iszkur ugula lu2-dingir-ra kiszib3 sza3-nin-ga2 mu ma-da za-ab-sza-li ba-hul sza3-nin-ga2 dub-sar dumu lugal-uszurx(|LAL2.TUG2|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NYPL 062. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: New York Public Library, New York, New York, USA (P122598) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P122598..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.