Position in chronology
CDLI Literary 000382, ex. 022
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P346554.
Transliteration
dim2#-ma-bi szu# [...] udug sa6-ga-bi [...] ni2 me-lam2 sag-ga2 gal2-la#-[...] unu-ga tesz2-bi a-ba#-[...] iri-da kur-kur-[...] e-ne# [...] x [...] sza3 [...] a#? [...] erin2 sag-gin7 mu-un#-[...] AN# [...] kaskal munu4-gin7 mu-un#-[...] AN# [...] me3 zu-ba szu-ba E bi2#-[...] sag erin2-na lu2-ta e3#-[...] x [...] gu-ti-um UR# x x e-NE [...] igi-[...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — CDLI Literary 000382, ex. 022. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P346554) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P346554..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.