Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 035
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P472335.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(asz@c) i3-szah2 sila3 lu2 szabra e2 1(asz@c) pu-zu-zu lu2 szabra e2 maszkim ma2 sze 5(asz@c) sila3 lu2-banda3 dumu a#?-zi 1/3(asz@c) i3 esir5-kam i3 zi#-ga#-a mu-ni-kam# iti# szu-gar
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 035. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Carl L. Lippmann Collection, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain (P472335) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P472335..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.