TCBI 1, 103

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P382355.

Why it matters

Transliteration

1(asz@c) i3-szah2 gesz szum2-ma sila3
lu2-banda3
lu2-gesz-hur-ra
an-na-szum2
ur-szu-luh-ha
nu-kiri6
maszkim-bi
i3 zi-ga

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — TCBI 1, 103. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Banca d'Italia, Rome, Italy (P382355) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P382355..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.