Position in chronology
MAD 1, 323
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P215151.
Transliteration
5(asz@c) _dug i3-nun_ zu-zu 2(asz@c) _dug_ 1(asz@c) _sila3 i3-nun_ i3-li2-sukkal 1(asz@c) _dug_ 3(asz@c) _sila3 i3-nun_ szu-i3-li2-su 1(asz@c) _dug_ 4(asz@c) _sila3 i3-nun_ [u2]-du-da 1(u@c) 6(asz@c) _sila3 i3-nun_ bi2-bi2# 2(u@c) 3(asz@c) _sila3 i3#-nun_ sa-lu-lu _szu-nigin2_ 1(u@c) _dug_ 1(u@c) 7(asz@c) _sila3 i3-nun_ mu-hu-ra-um
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 1, 323. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P215151) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P215151..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.