Position in chronology
RIMB 2.06.32.16, ex. add027
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P405577.
Transliteration
en-lil2-la2 lugal kur-kur-ra lugal-a-ni-ir an-szar2-ba-an-ap-lu sipa sze-ga-bi lugal kal-ga lugal ub-da limmu2-ba e2-kur e2 ki-ag2-ga2-a-ni sig4 al-ur3-ra-ta mu-un-na-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — RIMB 2.06.32.16, ex. add027. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: World Museum Liverpool, Liverpool, UK (P405577) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P405577..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.