Position in chronology
Princeton 1, 249
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P126938.
Why it matters
Transliteration
3(gesz2) 6(disz) dusu 2(gesz2) 5(disz) |ZI&ZI|-sze3 4(asz) gu2 gesz u2 bil2-la 5(asz) gu2 ma-nu ki# ur-sila-luh-ta lugal-e-ba-an-sa6 szu ba-ti iti e2-iti-6(disz) mu us2-sa an-sza-an ba-hul ur-li9-si4 ensi2 umma lugal-e-ba-an-sa6 dub-sar [...] [...] ARAD2-zu?
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Princeton 1, 249. 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: Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, USA (P126938) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P126938..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.