Position in chronology
RA 081, 003-096 063
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P357956.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x] _gin2# ku3-babbar_ [a-na] ni-qi2-a [...] a x ni [...] nu x ti2? a [u2-sze2]-bi-il5 [...]-ra-am [...] uk# [...] x [...] ma-la2 [...] a-bi-a-ma [u2-sze2]-bi4-il5
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Assyrian (ca. 1950-1850 BC)) — RA 081, 003-096 063. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P357956) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P357956..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.