Position in chronology
Šu-Suen 33
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSRI(1) Šu-Suen, the beloved of Enlil, the king whom Enlil chose with the love of his heart, king of Urim, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four quarters: Babati, the scribe, the comptroller, the archivist, the steward of the king, the governor of Awal and Apiak, the canal inspector of the irrigated lands, the administrator of the two ladies, the temple administrator of Belat-terraban and Belat-suḫnir, the brother of Abi-simti, his beloved spouse, is your servant.
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions — scholar edition (Vienna).
Scholarly note
Sumerian royal inscription, published in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI) by Gábor Zólyomi and collaborators. Translation reproduced from the ETCSRI edition. ORACC text Q001830.
Attribution
Image: .
Translation excerpted from Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI), University of Vienna, edited by Gábor Zólyomi et al. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/etcsri/Q001830/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.