Position in chronology
Hermitage 3, 008
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211432.
Why it matters
Transliteration
7(disz) gurusz 4(ban2) sze lugal-ta 1(u) 3(disz) gurusz 3(ban2)-ta sze-bi 2(asz) 1(barig) 1(ban2) gur sze-ba ug3-IL2-ne-sze3 ki inim-ba-ba6-i3-dab5-ta ugula a2-ta-szu-ta iti ezem-li9-si4 mu us2-sa an-sza-an ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Hermitage 3, 008. 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: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P211432) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211432..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.