Position in chronology
OIP 115, 462 & 463
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P123506.
Transliteration
4(asz) sze gur lugal ki inanna-ka-ta puzur4-i3-szu szu ba-ti iti ezem-nin-a-zu mu e2 puzur4-isz-da-gan ba-du3-a# 4(asz) sze gur# lugal# ki inanna-ka-ta# puzur4#-i3-szu [szu] ba#-ti iti# ezem#-nin-a-zu mu e2 puzur4-isz-da-gan ba-[du3]-a# puzur4-i3-szum dumu ku-ru-ub-[utu]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — OIP 115, 462 & 463. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P123506) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P123506..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.