Position in chronology
SumRecDreh 01
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P130498.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(disz) amar masz-da3 e2-uz-ga a-a-kal-la maszkim 2(disz) amar masz-da3 ba-usz2 e2-kiszib3-ba-sze3 mu-kux(DU) a-da-tum u4 2(disz)-kam ki ab-ba-sa6-ga-ta ba-zi iti ses-da-gu7 mu en nanna ba-hun 3(disz)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SumRecDreh 01. 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: private: anonymous, New York, New York, USA (P130498) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P130498..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.