Position in chronology
Prag 614
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359216.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(u) 5(disz) _gin2 ku3-babbar_ ni-is-ha-su2 _diri_ sza puzur4-su2-en6# a-na puzur4-a-szur a-na ta-ad-mi3-iq-tim i-di2-nu i-li-bi4 puzur4-a-szur 1(disz) _gin2 ku3-babbar_ sza-du-u2-tum i-li-bi4 puzur4-su2-en6
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Assyrian (ca. 1950-1850 BC)) — Prag 614. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic (P359216) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359216..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.