Position in chronology
CST 678
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108195.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(ban2) szesz-a-ni 4(ban2) en-mu10-us2-sa2 1(barig) 5(ban2) 5(disz) sila3 e2 szul-gi-ta ki mu-ni-ta giri3 da-da iti ezem-szul-gi mu si-mu-ru-um ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CST 678. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y23 — Simurrum destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK (P108195) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P108195..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.