Position in chronology
RINAP 3/2 Sennacherib x1025, ex. 001
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P404626.
Transliteration
[...] ma-har x [...] [...] _ki_ i _szi_ [...] [...] _ru#?_ ma-kan2 x [...] [...] x ma-al-di _a_ x [...] [...] x ina _ugu_ ta-mir-ti# [...] [...]-di#-ti i-sza2-a [...] [... sza2]-ta#-at qe2-e et-tu-tu2 [...] [...] x na _har ra_ x [...] [...] x x x [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — RINAP 3/2 Sennacherib x1025, ex. 001. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P404626) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P404626..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.