Position in chronology
RIMB 2.06.32.23, ex. 001 & RIMB 2.06.33.05, ex. 001
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P258187.
Transliteration
[x x?] x x x x [...] [x?] x qe2-reb e2-sag-il2# [...] e#-nu-ma nu-u2-ru szu-a-ti# [...] _munus#-saga_-tim an-szar2-du3-a _lugal kur-[kur?_ ...] u4-mi-szam lit-tas#-x x x [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — RIMB 2.06.32.23, ex. 001 & RIMB 2.06.33.05, ex. 001. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P258187) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P258187..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.