Position in chronology
CDLB 2014/004 §2.2
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P333867.
Transliteration
_2(u) babbar-dili_ ina _igi_ marduk-mu-gesz u zalag2-3(u) iti sig4 u4 2(disz)-kam mu 8(disz)-kam ag-ni2-tuku lugal babilax(|DIN.TIR|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Babylonian (ca. 626-539 BC)) — CDLB 2014/004 §2.2. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA (P333867) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P333867..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.