Position in chronology
RTC 330
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P128483.
Transliteration
2(disz) id-gur2 i3 u4 3(disz)-kam e2-a-ma-li2-ik lu2 kas4 2(disz) id-gur2 [x] u4 3(disz)-[kam] szu-UD-x lu2 kas4 szuszin-ta nam-da gen-na-ne-ne iti# ezem-li9-si4
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — RTC 330. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P128483) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P128483..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.