Position in chronology
MS 2446
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006063.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(N01)# , E2~b DA~a 2(N01) , A KASZ~c 1(N01) , URI3~a IB~a 1(N01) , MUD 1(N01) , KU~b1 AN 2(N01) , E2~b SI , LAGAB~a ZATU659 NAM2 RAD~a PA~a SZE~a A URI3~a IB~a 2(N01) , UD5~a 1(N01) , UTUA~a 3(N01) , UDUNITA~a 1(N01) , NUN~b 2(N01) , MASZ2 9(N01) , UDU~a TUR# ZATU659 URI3~a IB~a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2446. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006063) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006063..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.