Position in chronology
RINBE 2, Nabonidus 37, ex. 03
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P428767.
Why it matters
Transliteration
na3-na-'i-id _lugal szar2_ _lugal#_ babila2# sza# e2-nun-mah _e2_ hi#-[x]-s,i [x x] e2#-[x]-nu#-gal2# [...]-pu2#-szu#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Babylonian (ca. 626-539 BC)) — RINBE 2, Nabonidus 37, ex. 03. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P428767) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P428767..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.