Position in chronology
CDLI Literary 000352, ex. 004
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P346518.
Transliteration
[...] x x [...] en#?-e a2 nam#-[...] sag-kal KU AB x [...] pirig gal GIR3#? [...] pirig tur x [...] AN x x [...] x [...] me-gu10 x [...] gesz-hur-gu10 [...] dub# nam tar-ra#-[gu10 ...] ur-sag nin-urta# [...] me en-ki-ga x [...] gesz#-hur me-a# [...] [...] x me#-a# [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — CDLI Literary 000352, ex. 004. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P346518) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P346518..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.