RTC 251

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P217023.

Why it matters

Transliteration

[3(ban2) 1(asz@c) 1/2(disz) sila3 ...]
[gu-ti-um-x]
1(ban2@c) lu2# nibru#[]
1(ban2@c) lu2 BAD3@s
2(disz) sila3 lu2 ki-masz
2(disz) sila3 lu2 |SAGxNI|-sar
nigar#
1(ban2@c) [...]-me
mu [...] ru14
zi-ga 1(disz@t) iti la2 2(disz@t) u4
[iti ...]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — RTC 251. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P217023) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P217023..

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

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.

~3500 BCE

Kish Tablet

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.

~2450 BCE

Stele of the Vultures

The earliest historical document in human history.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.