Position in chronology
USC 6740
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P235550.
Why it matters
Transliteration
3(ban2) nin#-e2-gal-e 3(ban2) nu-ur2-iszkur 3(ban2) nin-ur2-ra-ni 3(ban2) nin-geszkim-zi 3(ban2) nin9-a-ni 3(ban2)# nin#?-ezem usz-bar-me ur-nin-tu i3-dab5 mu sza-asz-szu2-ru ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — USC 6740. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y38 — Šaššuru destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Archaeological Research Collection, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA (P235550) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P235550..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.