Position in chronology
USC 6764
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P235574.
Transliteration
1(szar2)# 3(gesz'u) 3(u) sa# [gi] gu-nigin2-ba 2(u) 5(disz) sa-ta ga2 nun du6-ku3-sig17#-ta e2-masz-a kux(KWU147)-ra ki ur-ba-ba6-ta kiszib3 a-gu giri3 lugal-ma2-gur8-re mu gu-za en#-lil2# [...] a-gu dub-sar dumu lugal-e2-mah-e?
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — USC 6764. 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 (P235574) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P235574..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.