Position in chronology
CUSAS 39, 001
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P250470.
Why it matters
Transliteration
pisan-dub-ba gur11-gur11-ra-a ki ur-ku3-nun-na iti sze-sag11-ku5 mu bad3 mar-tu ba-du3-ta iti diri ezem-me-ki-gal2 mu na-ru2-a-mah ba-du3-sze3 mu 3(disz)-kam i3-gal2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 39, 001. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y37 — The Amorite wall was built based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P250470) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P250470..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.