Position in chronology
TCND 213
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P133914.
Transliteration
1(u) la2 1(disz) udu 2(disz) u8 4(disz) masz2 3(disz) ud5 szu-gid2 e2-muhaldim ur-nigar szu ba-ti [...] iti ezem-[...] mu en [nanna] masz2-e i3-[pa3]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TCND 213. 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 (P133914) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P133914..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.