Position in chronology
CDLI Literary 000343, ex. 046
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P346470.
Transliteration
[...] x x [...] [...]-ne szu#!? [...]-ab-gid2-de3-[...] [...]-ne x#? szu [...]-ab-gid2-de3-[...] [...] gag-ta# la2#-a# szum2#?-[...]-x-en du11-ga-na-ab-[...] [...] [...] x x AN!?-bi szu [...] mu-na-ab#?-[...] [...] x ki#? x [...] x x NE [...] [...] IM sze3 szub-ba [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — CDLI Literary 000343, ex. 046. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P346470) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P346470..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.