Position in chronology
Princeton 1, 200
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P126889.
Transliteration
2(gesz2) 1(u) 2(disz) sa gi inim-szara2 1(gesz2) 3(u) sa gi-zi bi2-da 4(u) sa gi-zi an-na-hi-li-bi ki ab-ba-ta kiszib3 hu-wa-wa iti szu-numun mu us2-sa ki-masz mu us2-sa-a-bi lu2-eb-gal dub-sar dumu ur-ge6-par4
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Princeton 1, 200. 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 (P126889) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P126889..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.