Position in chronology
TMH NF 1-2, 090
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P134402.
Transliteration
3(asz) sze gur ur5-sze3# masz2 gur 1(barig) 4(ban2)-ta ki ur-szul-pa-e3-ta er3-ra-nu-id-e szu ba-ti 1(disz) lugal-engar 1(disz) ba-ka-ka 1(disz) ur-asznan lu2-inim-ma-bi-me iti udru mu na-ru2-a-mah en-lil2 nin-lil2-la2 ba-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TMH NF 1-2, 090. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Hilprecht Collection, University of Jena, Germany (P134402) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P134402..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.