Position in chronology
PPAC 4, 200
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P332119.
Transliteration
2(disz) gur zi3-IL2 esir2 su-ba zi3 ninda szu kum2-ma ba-an-si ki a-gu-ta kiszib3 e2-gal-e-si sza3 bala-a mu si-ma-num2 e2-gal-e-si dub-sar dumu ur-ku3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — PPAC 4, 200. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Couvent Sainte-Anne, Jerusalem (P332119) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P332119..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.