Position in chronology
MS 2502
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006069.
Why it matters
Transliteration
5(N34) 5(N14) 8(N01) , X 1(N57) DUR~b# LAGAB~b RAD~a 3(N34) 1(N14) 7(N01) , DUR~b BA 1(N34) 2(N14) , UR~a SANGA~a 1(N34) 2(N14) 1(N01) , GI , NAM2 ESZDA? 3(N57) PAP~a TE TUR
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC) ?) — MS 2502. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006069) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006069..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.