Position in chronology
Tavolette 294
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P132079.
Transliteration
2(disz) sila4 niga uzu a-bala# 1(disz) sila4 ga ka-izi-sze3 ur-ba-ba6 i3-[dab5] 1(disz) sila4 niga uzu elam?-sze3 2(disz) sila4 ga ka-izi-sze3 a-a-kal-la i3-dab5 sa2-du11 lugal ki na-lu5-ta sza3 nibru iti u5-bi2-gu7 mu# [hu]-uh2-nu-ri ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Tavolette 294. 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 (P132079) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P132079..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.