Position in chronology
SANTAG 6, 249
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211787.
Transliteration
2(disz) ninda du aga3-us2 ensi2-ka szu ba-ab-ti 2(disz) dabin ukken-ne2 sza3 e2-da-na-ka ki lu2-nin-szubur-ta kiszib3 ensi2-ka mu ma2 en-ki ba-ab-du8 szu-suen lugal kal-ga lugal uri5-ma lugal an-ub-da limmu2-ba a-a-kal-la ensi2 umma ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SANTAG 6, 249. 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 (P211787) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211787..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.