Position in chronology
Tavolette 005
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P131790.
Transliteration
1(gesz'u) 9(gesz2) 5(u) 5(disz) sa gi gu-nigin2-ba 1(u) 2(disz) sa-ta <i3>-gal2 ga2-nun gaba e2 lugal-ta ki lu2-bala-saga-ta mu-kux(DU) [...] U-U-sze3 giri3 i7-pa-e3 kiszib3 gu-u2-gu-a iti ezem-szul-gi mu [gu]-za en-[lil2] NI ba-dim2 gu-u2-gu-a dub-sar dumu ma-an-szum2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Tavolette 005. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Museo di Antichità di Torino, Turin, Italy (P131790) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P131790..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.