Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/4, Bod S 395
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P330463.
Why it matters
Transliteration
5(u) dusu ki ur-sila-luh-ta lugal-e-ba-sa6 szu ba-ti mu szul-gi lugal-e bad3 ma-da mu-du3 ur-li9-si4 ensi2 umma lugal-e-ba-<an>-sa6 [dub-sar] [dumu ...] [...] [ARAD2-zu]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAICAB 1/4, Bod S 395. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y1 — Šulgi became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P330463) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P330463..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.