Position in chronology
4R 35, 8
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P395698.
Why it matters
Transliteration
mu# ri-im-a-nu-um lugal-e ma#-da ia#-mu-ut-ba-a-lum ugnim# esz3-nun-na i3-si-in [ka]-zal#-lu e-ne-bi-da-gin7 [unu]-sze3# me3-a in-szi-su8-re-esz-am3 [unu?] nig2-ul-ta sahar-ra la-ba-dub?-a-ba [...]-us2?-am3 [... nam-a2]-gal#-a-ni-ta gar3-dar-a-bi i3-ni-in-gar-ra
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — 4R 35, 8. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P395698) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P395698..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.