Position in chronology
BMC Roma 8, 12 5
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P107224.
Why it matters
Transliteration
5(gesz2) 3(u) la2 3(disz) udu-nita2 2(gesz2) masz2 e2-udu#-sze3 ki ur-e11-e-ta ba-sa6 i3-dab5 iti pa4-u2-e mu an-sza-an ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — BMC Roma 8, 12 5. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y35 — Anšan destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Museo Barracco, Rome, Italy (P107224) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P107224..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.