Position in chronology
Umma 051
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P139560.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(szar2) 4(u) sa gi 3(u) sa gi gil ki ab-ba-ta usz-mu szu ba-ti kiszib3 usz-mu u3 kiszib3 kas4! kiszib3 ab-ba zi-re-dam mu ur-bi2-lum mu-hul ab-ba dub-sar dumu [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Umma 051. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Institut Catholique, Paris, France (P139560) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P139560..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.