Position in chronology
Prag 725
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359305.
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-la2-hu-um _dumu_ ku-ku-a a-bi4-a-szur3 en-na-su2-en6 e-ta-lum2 a-szur-mu#-[...] en-na-a-szur3 en-um-a-szur3 a-szur3-ni-im-ri []be#-lum2-ba-ni [szu]-esz18-dar [x-x]-um
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Assyrian (ca. 1950-1850 BC)) — Prag 725. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic (P359305) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359305..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.