Position in chronology
Prag 668
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359264.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] x x u3 dam-ga-[...] s,u2-ha-ru-u2-ka3 [...] t,u3-ur-da-ni-[szu-nu] a-szu-mi3 _ku3-babbar#_ u3 bi-it-qa2-[tim] sza ta-asz2-pu#-[ra-ni] [...] x x [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Assyrian (ca. 1950-1850 BC)) — Prag 668. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic (P359264) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359264..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.