Position in chronology
KKS 20b
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359955.
Why it matters
Transliteration
_kiszib3_ pa2-ku-a _kiszib3_ im?-[...] _kiszib3_ ba-lum2-ni-mar _kiszib3#_ [...] _dumu_ [i]-di2-su2-en _kiszib3_ szi2-ip-ti2-ku-ni sza hu-bu-ul i-di2-su2-en u3 szi2-ip-ti2-ku-ni
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Assyrian (ca. 1950-1850 BC)) — KKS 20b. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic (P359955) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359955..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.