Position in chronology
TMH NF 1-2, 062
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P134374.
Why it matters
Transliteration
3(barig) 2(ban2) sze gur ur5-sze3 masz2 1(asz) gur 1(barig) 4(ban2)-ta ki lugal-a2-zi-da-ta lu2-da-mu-ke4 szu ba-ti iti sig4 su-su-dam iti sze-sag11-ku5 u4 1(u) 2(disz) ba-zal mu si-mu-ru-um ba-hul lu2-da-mu dumu lugal-bara2#?-[ge-si?]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TMH NF 1-2, 062. 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: Hilprecht Collection, University of Jena, Germany (P134374) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P134374..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.