Position in chronology
TCNU 709
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P135557.
Transliteration
5(disz) pisan im sar-ra esir2 su-ba a2-bi u4 2(u)-kam ki lu2-igi-sa6-sa6-ta zi-ga bala-a ga2-ga2-de3 lu2-eb-gal-ke4 szu ba-ti kiszib3 ur-szara2 sza13-dub-ba iti szu-numun mu us2-sa ki-masz ba-hul lugal-nir dub-sar dumu ur-szara2 sza13-dub-ba-ka
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TCNU 709. 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 (P135557) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P135557..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.