KTP 41

~1900 BCE·Old Assyrian·P260378

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P260378.

Why it matters

Transliteration

[...]-na-ni / a-du-[...]
[...]-be i3-li2-isz-ti2-[kal2]
[um]-ma# szu-ut-ma 1/3(disz) _ma-[na]_
[...] _ku3-babbar_-ap#
[...] ka3-ru-um i-di2-ni-[...]
[...] a-na a-szur3-i-mi3-ti2#
[...] 1/3(disz) _ma-na ku3-babbar_ i-[...]
[...] li-mi3-im [...]
[...] x ub lu [...]
[...] x x x [...]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Assyrian (ca. 1950-1850 BC) ?) — KTP 41. 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 (P260378) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P260378..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.