Position in chronology
ARET 03, 238
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P242430.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] 1(asz@c) _SAL_ [...] [...]-mu-da#?-u3 [...] [...] _|IB2+3(DISZ@t)| dar tug2_ 1(asz@c) gu2-li-lum _a-gar5-gar5 ku3:babbar_ x-[...] 3(asz@c) gu-zi-tum# 3(asz@c) _zara6_ 3(asz@c) _|IB2+3(DISZ@t)| dar sa6 tug2_ 1(asz@c) _dib_ |GA2xLA2| SZA-PI _ku3-sig17_ [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 238. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: National Museum of Syria, Idlib, Syria (P242430) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P242430..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.