Position in chronology
BIN 08, 225
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P212769.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(gesz2)* gurusz# x? dumu amar-x [1(gesz2)] erin-da 2(gesz2)# 3(u) aga3-us2 1(gesz2) su-birx(|SZIMxNIG2|)-a 5(disz)* a-bil szitim 1(u) KA-ku3 1(u) nigar szunigin 6(gesz2) la2 5(disz@t)? gurusz
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — BIN 08, 225. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Nies Babylonian Collection, Yale Babylonian Collection, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (P212769) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P212769..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.