Position in chronology
ASJ 09, 240 17
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P102293.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(u) 3(disz) geme2 u4 1(disz)-sze3 a i7-de3 usz2-a ugula ku3-ga-ni mu us2-sa an-sza-an ba-hul a-kal-la# dub-[sar] dumu [...] [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — ASJ 09, 240 17. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y36 — Year after: Anšan destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (P102293) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P102293..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.