Position in chronology
Hermitage 3, 011
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211404.
Why it matters
Transliteration
8(disz) geme2 1(barig) sze lugal 1(disz) geme2 5(ban2) 3(u) 5(disz) geme2 4(ban2)-ta 1(u) 7(disz) geme2 3(ban2)-ta [...] dumu 2(ban2)-ta 2(u) 9(disz) dumu 1(ban2) 5(disz) sila3-ta 1(u) 1(disz) dumu 1(ban2)-ta sze-bi 8(asz) 4(barig) gur sze-ba geme2 usz-bar zu2-si-sze3 gen-na szu# ba#-ti iti sze-sag11 ku5 mu bad3 ma-da ba-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Hermitage 3, 011. 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: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P211404) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P211404..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.