Position in chronology
Prag 791
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359360.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a]-na puzur4#-[...] [qi2]-bi4-ma um-ma# [i]-a-szar-ma la2 ta#-[asz2-ta]-na#-me# [ki]-ma a-wi-lu isz#-tu3 da-asz2-e i-na# si2#-ka3-tim wa-asz2-bu-ni u4-ma-am e-ru-bu-nim a-na ba-ab2-ti2-a a-ta-na-la2-ak-ma# [um-ma szu-nu]-ma
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Assyrian (ca. 1950-1850 BC)) — Prag 791. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic (P359360) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359360..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.