Position in chronology
TMH NF 1-2, 068
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P134380.
Why it matters
Transliteration
3(asz)# sze gur ki lu2-bala-sa6-ga-ta ur-nigar muhaldim szu ba-ti su-su-dam iti ezem-li9-si4 mu gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2 ur-nigar szu# ba-ti# [...] iti# ezem-li9-si4 mu gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2 ur-nigar[] dumu lu2-[nansze] lu2 dug-[udul2]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TMH NF 1-2, 068. 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: Hilprecht Collection, University of Jena, Germany (P134380) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P134380..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.