Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 321
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P472621.
Transliteration
2(u@c) gurdub# 2(ban2@c) a-ra2 1(disz)-kam 2(u@c) 5(asz@c) gurdub 2(ban2@c) a-ra2 2(disz)-kam 2(u@c) gurdub 2(ban2@c) a#-ra2 3(disz)-kam 1(u@c) 5(asz@c) gurdub 2(ban2@c) a#-ra2# 4(disz)#-kam# ku3-[bi?] x x [...] ka# x szunigin# 1(gesz2@c) 2(u@c) gurdub
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 321. 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 (P472621) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P472621..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.