Position in chronology
Princeton 1, 438
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P127127.
Transliteration
1(gesz2) 1(u) 8(disz) gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3 a-da gub-ba a-sza3 lugal-kiri6 1(gesz2) 1(u) gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3 kun-zi-da a-sza3 ba-zi-gi4-a-engar 1(gesz2) 3(u) gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3 kab2-ku5 a-sza3 szul-pa-e3 ku5-da 4(u) 8(disz) gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3 kun-zi-da a-sza3 pu2-si4-mu gi4-a ugula a-a-kal-la kiszib3 ur-mes a-igi-du8 mu en eridu ba-hun ur-mes# dumu na-ba-[lu5]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Princeton 1, 438. 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 (P127127) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P127127..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.