Position in chronology
RINAP 5/1 Ashurbanipal 004, ex. 016
Not yet translated
This tablet is catalogued with its transliteration and photographed, but no published translation exists yet. Our translation engine works through the untranslated corpus every night, oldest first — this page will update the day its turn comes. If you are a specialist and can read it, we would love your help.
From the same catalogue range (near P392231)
Transliteration
[...]-ra# ina# _kur#_-ia# [...] re-sza2-a-szu2 [...] _du#_-ku [...] ad#-ke [...]-ru#-szu2 [...]-szak-lil [...] tem#-me-en-szu2 [...] x a-na da#-[...] il-li#-[...] e-ru-um-[...] _iri_ sza2 _ad#_ [...] a#-na mi-s,ir [...] al#-la#-ku [...] [x]-sza2#-[...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — RINAP 5/1 Ashurbanipal 004, ex. 016. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P392231) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P392231..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.