Position in chronology
CDLI Literary 000364, ex. 055
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P346523.
Transliteration
[...] ga-sza-an-ki-gal-la kur-ra sag# [...] im-ma-rig7# [ba]-u5-a-ba ba-[u5-a-ba] [...] ba#?-u5#?-[a-ba] [...]-ga#?-ta zi-zi-x [...] [...] ellag-a-ni ab-u5-x [a] gu2-gu10 a ib2-ga2 er2 im-ga2-ga2-ne#? [...]-du3-a nu-mu-un-kusz-x
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — CDLI Literary 000364, ex. 055. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P346523) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P346523..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.