Position in chronology
MS 2501
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006068.
Why it matters
Transliteration
8(N01)# , UR~a? GISZ3~b 1(N14) [...] 2(N01) , DUR~b# ZATU819# [...] 1(N01)# , GIR3~c BU~a DU A , TE RAD~a SANGA~a# [...] [...] , [...] 1(N34)# 1(N14)# 6(N01)# [...] , [...] 6(N34) , NE~a NUNUZ~a2 2(N01) , ZATU831@g 1(N01) , AGAR2 1(N01) , TUN3~a [...] , [...] , TE RAD~a SANGA~a X [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2501. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006068) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006068..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.