MS 2900/23

~3100 BCE·Uruk Period·P006231

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006231.

Why it matters

Transliteration

[...] , [...]
[...] , SZITA~a1#? SI#
[...] , X SAGSZU#
[...] , [...] AL#
[...] , [...]
[...] 1(N01)# , SZU# X
1(N01) , KA~a KASZ~c# MA
2(N01) , KASZ~c# MA# [...]
2(N01) , AN# [...]
[...] , [...]
[...] , [...]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2900/23. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006231) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P006231..

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

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.

~3500 BCE

Kish Tablet

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.

~2450 BCE

Stele of the Vultures

The earliest historical document in human history.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.