Position in chronology
Tavolette 143
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P131929.
Transliteration
1(disz) gu4 niga 1(disz) gu4 a2-ge6-ba-a 1(disz) gu4 niga 1(disz) gu4 a2 u4 te-na en-lil2 nin-lil2 lugal kux(KWU147)-ra iti u4 1(u) ba-zal bala a-a-kal-la ensi2 umma ki lu2-sa6-ga-ta ba-zi giri3 ur-szu-ga-lam-ma dub-sar sza3 tum-ma-al iti szu-esz5-sza mu en nanna kar-zi-da ba-hun 4(disz) gu4
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Tavolette 143. 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 (P131929) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P131929..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.