Position in chronology
BAM 6, 526
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P400259.
Transliteration
[...] _ku3#? gug#_ [...] [...] _ku3_ ka# [...] [...] _szid#_-nu ina _sag-ki#?_ [...] [...] ta nam sza2 _anze-kur-ra_ x [...] [...] _ka mur_-szu2 sza2 _zag_ x [...] [...] ana#? _ka mur_-szu2 sza2 _gub3 gar_ [...] [...] _tu-hul tu-hul ma-da_ [...] [... _ma]-da ma-da_ su x [...] [...] a-mu-ur x [...] [...] _sze#-da-a sze-da-a sze-da-a_ [...] [...] x [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — BAM 6, 526. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P400259) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P400259..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.