Position in chronology
CUSAS 15, 088
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P270717.
Transliteration
_igi-6(disz)-gal2_ a-hu-la-ap-utu x x _igi-6(disz)-gal2 sa10 2(u) ma-na ka kesz2-gal2 ma2 x_ _1(disz) gin2_ sza s,i-li2-utu _5(disz) gin2_ a-na _sa10 1(ban2) i3 sag_ sza a-na _sag-nig2-tuku_ _4(disz) gin2_ <EN>-ZU?-i-din-nam [x x?] KU MA _2(disz) gin2 sa10 ka-ra-x [...] sza _a2 e2-bar!-ra_ x
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — CUSAS 15, 088. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Rare Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, New York, USA (P270717) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P270717..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.