Position in chronology
RTC 333
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P128486.
Transliteration
1(disz) dug 1(disz) sila3 kasz du sa2-du11 u4 7(disz)-kam iszkur-ba-ni lu2 kas4 udu i7-de3 bala-de3 gen-na zi-ga iti mu-szu-du7
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — RTC 333. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P128486) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P128486..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.