Position in chronology
NATN p. 56 catalogue
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P275926.
Transliteration
[n] gin2# ku3-babbar masz2 nu-tuku [ki] x-ezem-ta si#-du3 szu ba-ti [iti ...]-x gi4-gi4-da [mu lugal]-bi in-pa3 [igi ...]-suen [igi ...]-x-bi [lu2-inim-m]a-bi-me [iti? ab?]-e3#? [mu ma-da] za-ab-[sza-li ba]-hul si-du3 dumu gu-la
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN p. 56 catalogue. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P275926) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P275926..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.