Position in chronology
TCL 20, 137
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P357703.
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-mi3-im [...] ep-sza / lu a-mu-ra-am ma-qi2-ta-ma a-szar e-pa-szi2-im ep-sza-szu-nu a-pu-tum la ta-sza-la-ta a-na e-ri-isz-ti2-ku-nu [x x] x ma-s,a-a-ni [...]-ma
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Assyrian (ca. 1950-1850 BC)) — TCL 20, 137. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P357703) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P357703..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.