Subartu 12, 164

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P274137.

Why it matters

Transliteration

_udu ur4_
_udu-nita_
'a3-sza-lum
2(u)# [...]
_munus-udu_
1(asz@c) mi-at
5(asz@c) _udu_
_sila4 u2_ 4(u)# [...]
_iti-sar utu_

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — Subartu 12, 164. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: National Museum of Syria, Der-ez-Zor, Syria (P274137) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P274137..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.