Position in chronology
RA 009, 055 SA 232
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P127576.
Transliteration
1(disz) dusu2-nita2 szu-gid2 ur-gi7-re ba-ab-gu7 u4 1(u) 7(disz)-kam giri3 i3-li2-a-ti sipa ur-gi7-ra ugula i3-lal3-lum ki szu-er3-ra-ta ba-zi iti ezem-an-na mu en inanna ba-hun 1(disz)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — RA 009, 055 SA 232. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Couvent Sainte-Anne, Jerusalem (P127576) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P127576..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.