Position in chronology
Princeton 1, 377
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P127066.
Transliteration
1(asz) 4(ban2) szara2-kam dumu mi-la-szu gab2-us2-sze3 iti 1(u)-sze3 iti sze-kar-gal2-la-ta iti dumu-zi-sze3 ab-ba-gi-na i3-dab5 kiszib3 lu2-ha-ia3 mu en ga-esz ba-hun lu2-ha-ia3 dub-sar dumu ur-e11-e szusz3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Princeton 1, 377. 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 (P127066) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P127066..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.