Position in chronology
RINAP 5/2, Ashurbanipal 197 ex. 006
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P426287.
Transliteration
[...]-na# _lugal#_-[x x] [...]-a? qi2-bi-ti# [...] a#-de-ia [...]-na# pi-i-szu2 [...]-ti#-szu2 u2-ra-sib ina _tukul-mesz_ [...] elam#-ma [...] _lugal#_-ti-ia# [...] _tukul#?-[x_ x]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — RINAP 5/2, Ashurbanipal 197 ex. 006. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P426287) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P426287..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.