Position in chronology
CDLI Literary 000365, ex. 064
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P356193.
Transliteration
[...]-x-gin7 ba-[x x] [x x]-ki#-na mu-un-de3#-[...] [...]-tur-gin7 giri3-<ni>-sze3 szu! ba!-an-dub2#-[...] [...] i#-im-zi ma2-mu2-da i-im#-[x x]-uh2 u3#-sa-ga-[x] [...] bi2-in-kin nig2-me-gar su3#-[x x] [x x]-un#-tag-ge nu-mu#-un#-[...] [x x]-un-na-de2#-[...] [x]-nu2-na [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — CDLI Literary 000365, ex. 064. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P356193) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P356193..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.