Position in chronology
CST 626
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108142.
Why it matters
Transliteration
6(disz) gurusz u4 1(u) 2(disz)-sze3 uri5-ta ma2-gur8 gu-la gid2-da 2(disz) gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3 ma2-a gi-zi ga2-ra iti x uruda? kiszib3 ba-sa6-[ga] [...] gu-za-la2 [...] giri3#? [...] mu us2-sa an-[sza]-an ba-hul# ba#-sa6#-[ga] dumu giri3-[ni] gal5#-la2#-[gal]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CST 626. 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: John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK (P108142) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108142..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.