Position in chronology
SMUI 1913.14.1238
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P421181.
Why it matters
Transliteration
3(barig) 1(disz) <sila3> sze ur5-ra masz2-bi igi 3(disz)-gal2 si-ge4-dam ki ur-nigar-ka-ta lu2-dingir-ra# szu ba-ti igi-tur-tur mu DI-TUM iti diri sze-sag-ku5 mu en nanna ba-hun lu2-[...] [...] dumu NE-[...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SMUI 1913.14.1238. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y15 — The en-priest of Nanna was installed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Spurlock Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA (P421181) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P421181..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.