Position in chronology
RINAP 5/2, Ashurbanipal 186 ex. 004
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P395611.
Transliteration
[...]-rat# _limmu2_-tim# [...] u uri [...]-szar2-ma# [...]-an-gu-ti [...]-mi3-sza2 _du10-ga_ [...]-at# dum-qi2 [...]-szim# szim-ti [...] kar#-szu-u-a [...]-s,a# _ugu_-ia# [...] _ugu# kur2-mesz_-ia [...]-ka szi#-rik#-ti [...] za-ma-ni-ia [...]-na# _lugal_-u2#-[x]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — RINAP 5/2, Ashurbanipal 186 ex. 004. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P395611) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P395611..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.