Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/2, pl. 101, 1937-047
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P248658.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(gesz2) sa gi ki szesz-kal-la-ta kun-zi-da suh gibil du3-a-sze3 giri3 a-kal-la kiszib3 szesz-kal-la# iti sze-kar-ra-gal2 mu gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2 szesz-kal-la dub-sar dumu na-silim
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAICAB 1/2, pl. 101, 1937-047. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Ur-Nammu y14 — The throne of Enlil was fashioned based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P248658) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P248658..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.