Position in chronology
Princeton 1, 167
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P126856.
Transliteration
[1(disz)] udu 1(disz) sila4 1(disz) masz2 ur-szara2 nu-banda3 erin2 1(disz) udu szara2-a-mu gudu4 szul-gi-ra 1(disz) udu szesz-a-ni gudu4 szul-gi 1(disz) masz2 ur-suen sukkal za3-ga ugula ad-da-kal-la udu gu2-na mu-kux(DU) iti nesag
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Princeton 1, 167. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, USA (P126856) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P126856..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.