Position in chronology
SumRecDreh 11
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P130508.
Why it matters
Transliteration
4(gesz2) udu mu e2-a-i3-li2-sze3 na-ra-am-i3-li2 maszkim ki a-hu-ni-ta lugal-nir-gal2 sukkal i3-dab5 iti u4 1(u) 8(disz) ba-zal iti ezem-nin-a-zu mu ki-masz u3 hu-ur5-ti ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SumRecDreh 11. 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 (P130508) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P130508..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.