Position in chronology
KTP 39
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P260355.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] x [...] [...] ni [...] [...] x tam2# ma x [...] [...] 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) ma x [... 1(u) 2(disz)] [...] 7(disz) 1/2(disz) _sze_ 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(u) 6(disz) ki#-sza-dam ku lu szu [...] [...] 5(disz) 1/2(disz) _sze_ 1(disz) ki-sza-dam a x [...] [...] x 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) 1(disz) be ni# [1(u) 9(disz)] [...] x 2(u) 2(disz) 1/2(disz) 7(disz) 1/2(disz) _sze_ [...] [...] x x ku dam [...] [...] 3(disz)+x 5(disz) [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Assyrian (ca. 1950-1850 BC)) — KTP 39. 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 (P260355) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P260355..
Related tablets
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.