KTP 33

~1900 BCE·Old Assyrian·P260397

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P260397.

Why it matters

Transliteration

[...] x [...]
[a]-szur3# u3 mar-tu-[ba-ni]
[...] sza / sza-tim isz-te2#-[en]
[...] x zi-im-szu al-qe2
[...] la2 ak-bu-su2-ka3
[...] ni a-ta a-di2 t,up-x [...]
[...] a-nim u3 x x x
[...] am-ri-a u3 ku#-[x]-x
[...] asz2-pu-ra-kum / di2 [...]
[...] t,up-pe2-e sze2-bi-lam
[...] wa szi2 x [...]
[...] wa _igi_ x [...]
[...] x x [...]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Assyrian (ca. 1950-1850 BC) ?) — KTP 33. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P260397) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P260397..

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

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.

~3500 BCE

Kish Tablet

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.

~2450 BCE

Stele of the Vultures

The earliest historical document in human history.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.