Position in chronology
CDLJ 2015/3 §2.38
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P405485.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(disz) masz2 ensi2 ka-zal-lu mu-kux(DU) be-li2-du10 kuruszda i3-dab5 sza3 tum-ma-al iti a2-ki-ti mu bad3 ma-da ba-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CDLJ 2015/3 §2.38. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y30 — The frontier wall was built based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Oriental Museum, University of Durham, Durham, UK (P405485) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P405485..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.