Position in chronology
NMSA 3638
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P341936.
Why it matters
Transliteration
5(disz) gin2 ku3 gesztin-na e2-gal-e-si 5(disz) gin2 ku3 e2 |KI.AN|-sze3 ki e2-gal-e-si-ta 1(u) gin2 gurusz lunga? ki ur-utu-ta 1/2(disz) ma-na la2 2(disz@t) gin2# ku3-babbar ku3 lugal-nig2-lagar-e dam-gar3 a-kal-la szu ba-ti mu an-sza-an ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NMSA 3638. 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: National Museum of Syria, Aleppo, Syria (P341936) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P341936..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.