Position in chronology
Princeton 2, 386
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P201385.
Transliteration
1(u) gurusz hun-ga2 gi ku5-ra2-a a2 5(disz) sila3-ta GAN2 lugal-e2-mah-e ugula i-di3-er3-ra gurum2 u4 5(disz)-kam a-sza3 e2-mah kiszib3 lugal-ku3-zu iti li9-si4 mu ki-masz hu-ur5-ti u3 ma-da-bi u4 asz-a ba-hul lugal-ku3-zu dub-sar dumu lugal-[...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Princeton 2, 386. 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 (P201385) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P201385..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.