Position in chronology
SumRecDreh 02
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P130499.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(u) gu4 niga 2(disz) gu4 u4 2(u) 1(disz)-kam ki ab-ba-sa6-ga-ta ur-szu-ga-lam-ma i3-dab5 iti ezem-mah mu en eridu ba-hun 1(u) 2(disz)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SumRecDreh 02. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: private: anonymous, New York, New York, USA (P130499) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P130499..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.