Position in chronology
TMH NF 1-2, 359
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P134669.
Transliteration
bar nig2-bun2-na u3-ul-bil2 u3-kum i3-gesz ka u3-szesz4# lu2 kal? al-su-ub-be2# u3-su-ub kasz sag3 al-su-ub-be2 kasz sag3 u3-su-ub a al-tu17-tu17 a u3-tu17 u3-suh5 u3-kum ab-se-ge lu2 GIN2 u3 nu gig szub-ba-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TMH NF 1-2, 359. 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 (P134669) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P134669..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.