Position in chronology
Princeton 1, 501
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P127190.
Transliteration
5(disz) 1/3(disz) sar kin u2 sahar-ba gurusz-e 7(disz) 1/2(disz) gin2-ta kab2-ku5 i7 na-ra-am-suen sahar si-ga kiszib3 inim-szara2 ugula u3-dag-ga iti dal mu ku3 gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2 inim-szara2 dub-sar dumu ur-nigar
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Princeton 1, 501. 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 (P127190) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P127190..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.