Position in chronology
Princeton 1, 199
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P126888.
Transliteration
1(gesz'u) 1(gesz2) 2(u) sa gi gu-nigin2-ba 1(u) 3(disz)-ta en-du8-du-ta ga2-nun e2 lugal-ka kux(KWU147)-ra# ugula lugal-e2-mah-e kiszib3 szesz-kal-la mu si-ma-num2 ba-hul szesz-kal-la dub-sar dumu lugal-ma2-gur8-re
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Princeton 1, 199. 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 (P126888) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P126888..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.