Position in chronology
TCBI 2/2, 18
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P381672.
Why it matters
Transliteration
3(barig) 1(ban2) 5(disz)? sila3 sze lu2 hun-ga2 a2 lu2 hun-ga2 e2 du3-de3 2(ban2) dumu lu2-kam ba-zi ki geme2-en-lil2-la2-ta iti du6-ku3 u4 1(u) ba-zal-la# mu si-mu-ru-um ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TCBI 2/2, 18. 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: Banca d'Italia, Rome, Italy (P381672) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P381672..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.