Position in chronology
SANTAG 6, 023
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P212226.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(disz) tug2 guz-za du 1(disz) gada du tug2 kas4 pa4-u2-e ki nig2-bi-ta lu2-nin-szubur szu ba-ti iti pa4-u2-e mu an-sza-an ba-hul szul-gi nita kal-ga du10-ga szabra szara2 ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SANTAG 6, 023. 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: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P212226) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P212226..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.