Position in chronology
RA 059, 029 no. 07
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P390548.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(u) _ma-na ku3-babbar_ ku-nu-ki sza tam2-ka3-ri-im a-na szu-be-lim u3 da-da-a-a ap2-qi2-id _igi_ ba-zi-a _dumu!_ dingir-kur-ub _igi_ en-na-nim _dumu_ a-bi-a _igi_ tu3-ra-am-i3-li2 _dumu_ e-di2-na-a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Assyrian (ca. 1950-1850 BC)) — RA 059, 029 no. 07. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva, Switzerland (P390548) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P390548..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.