Position in chronology
TCND 005
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P133834.
Transliteration
1(disz) sila4 ur-sukkal sagi 5(disz) masz2-gal 1(disz) masz2 en-um-i3-li2 dumu da-da-a 1(disz) masz2-tur a-lum 1(disz) asz2-gar3 gun3-a 1(disz) masz2 gun3-a ur-suen 1(disz) udu niga ki ur-szul-gi-ra e2 []en-lil2-la2-ta mu-kux(DU) iti ki-siki nin-a-zu mu en nanna masz-e i3-pa3 u4 1(u) 2(disz)-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TCND 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 (P133834) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P133834..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.