Position in chronology
TCBI 1, 171
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P382423.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(asz@c) i3-nun dug igi-su4 1(asz@c) a-ba-mu-na 1(u@c) 1(asz@c) 2/3(asz@c) sila3 IM-ki 1(u@c) 1(disz) sila3 la2 igi 6(disz)-gal2 ur-zigum-ma 1(u@c) la2 1(disz) sila3 ur-gu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — TCBI 1, 171. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Banca d'Italia, Rome, Italy (P382423) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P382423..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.