Position in chronology
TCBI 1, 233
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P382485.
Why it matters
Transliteration
4(asz@c) kusz masz lu2-nig2-bara4-ga an-na-szum2 2(asz@c) kusz kusz du10-gan ensi2 gala aszgab an-na-szum2 2(asz@c) kusz a2#-ga2-gada-sze3 a2-ni-ta aszgab an-na-szum2 szunigin 8(asz@c) kusz zalag-ga kusz zi-ga-am3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — TCBI 1, 233. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Banca d'Italia, Rome, Italy (P382485) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P382485..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.