Position in chronology
Tavolette 177
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P131963.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(u) 7(disz) udu niga 2(disz) masz2-gal niga sa2-du11 nin-lil2-la2 u4 3(u) la2 1(disz)-kam zi-ga sza3 tum-ma-al [ki] en-dingir-mu iti ezem-szul-gi mu szul-gi lugal-e ur-bi2-lum lu-lu-bu si-mu-ru-um u3 kar2-har 1(disz)-sze3 sagdu-bi szu bur2 bi2-ra-a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Tavolette 177. 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: Museo di Antichità di Torino, Turin, Italy (P131963) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P131963..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.