Position in chronology
TCS 1, 373
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P145793.
Transliteration
a-na ur-nin-su4-an-na qi2-bi2-ma 2(disz) sila3 i3-gesz szu-bi2-lam kiszib3 ip-qu2-sza ip-qu2-sza dub-sar dumu ku-ku-za-num2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TCS 1, 373. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Siegfried H. Horn Museum, Institute of Archaeology, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, USA (P145793) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P145793..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.