Position in chronology
SA 191
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P273662.
Why it matters
Transliteration
4(asz) gur sze-gesz#-[i3] 2/3(disz) gin2! ku3-babbar sag 3(disz) tug2!-hi-a sag szu ti-a utu-ha-zi-ir ki wa-tar-utu iti sig4-a sze u3 masz2#-bi [tug2] u3# masz2-bi i3-la2-e igi mes-a-lum igi szu-i3-li2-szu igi na-ru-tum kiszib lu2-inim-ma ib2-ra iti# apin-du8 u3 2(u) 3(disz)-kam# mu ha-am-mu-ra-pi2 lugal ra#-pi2#-qum#[ u3 sza-li-bi]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — SA 191. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Hammurabi y1 — Hammurabi became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Special Collections and Archives, John T. Richardson Library, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P273662) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P273662..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.