Position in chronology
USC 6587
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P235399.
Transliteration
1(u)# x [...] x [...] 3(asz)# [...] a2# [...] 1(asz)# [...] x [...] 3(barig)# [...] ugu2 ur-ba-ba6-ka ba-a-gar kiszib3 ur-szara2 mu us2-sa e2 puzur4-da-gan ba-du3 ur-li9-si4 ensi2 umma ur-szara2 sza13-dub-ba dumu lugal-uszur4 ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — USC 6587. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Archaeological Research Collection, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA (P235399) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P235399..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.