Position in chronology
SANTAG 6, 131
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211758.
Transliteration
2(u) su7-su7 esir2 su-ba 2(u) ma-an-sim dabin esir2 su-ba 5(disz) ma-an-sim zi3-gu x kid szer7-ru-um ki-la2-bi [1/3(disz) sar] ma2 zi3-da ba-a-dulx(UR) kiszib3 lugal-e2-mah-e mu en-mah-gal-an-na ba-hun lugal-e2-mah-e dumu ur-[dumu-zi]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SANTAG 6, 131. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P211758) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211758..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.