Position in chronology
OIP 115, 476
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P123695.
Transliteration
pisan-dub-ba e2-tum sze siki tug2 i3 uruda u3 a2 nam-lu2-u18 ki lu2-gi-na szabra e2-amar-ra e2-szara2 iti masz-da3-gu7 mu ki-masz ba#-hul-ta# iti sze-sag11-ku5 mu us2-sa ki-masz ba-hul-sze3 iti 1(u) 2(disz)-kam i3-gal2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — OIP 115, 476. 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 (P123695) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P123695..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.