Position in chronology
Prag 809
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359369.
Why it matters
Transliteration
a?-szu?-mi3?-[ka3] [x x]-ta#-ni i-na x [...] [...]-u2-ni u2-ta-ru [x] _gin2 ku3-babbar_ a!-na bu-zu#? [...] di2-na a-wa-tum / sza a-lim[] i-su2-hu-ur um-ma pi3-la2-ha-a-ma a-na [...]-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Assyrian (ca. 1950-1850 BC)) — Prag 809. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic (P359369) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359369..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.