Position in chronology
OTR 134
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P123069.
Transliteration
2(u) dabin# [gur] si-i3-tum [...] sza3-bi-ta 2(u) 2(asz) 2(barig) gur lu2-hu-bu7 gu7-a 3(asz) 3(barig) la2-ia3 su-ga giri3 ur-szul-pa-e3 gu-za-la2 szunigin 2(u) 7(asz) dabin gur nig2-ka9-ak si-i3-tum nig2-ba-ba6 dumu ni-ba mu us2-sa e2 puzur4-isz-da-gan ba-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — OTR 134. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Columbia University Library, New York, New York, USA (P123069) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P123069..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.