Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 305
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P472605.
Transliteration
1(asz@c)# x-x-an 1(asz@c) mi#-za-ti 1(asz@c) u-lu5-ga simug-me ensi2-ke4 na-be2-a mes-zi dub-sar-ra u3-na-du11 simug-ne zabar lugal kin-sze3 al ak# szu# he2-us2-e
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 305. 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 (P472605) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P472605..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.