Position in chronology
RIME 3/2.nn 006
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P405482.
Transliteration
na4 2(u) ma-na gu-za nam-ti-la-ka? ga?-an-gi-na? min-mu nam-ti-la-ka-mu ba? he2-em-mi-in-ak? igi x ga-ni?-ib2?-x da-ar is, he2-ri x in-tuku
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC) ?) — RIME 3/2.nn 006. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Oriental Museum, University of Durham, Durham, UK (P405482) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P405482..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.