Position in chronology
KTT 073
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P392708.
Transliteration
[n] _ma-na ku3-[babbar]_ ma-ki#-is# i-na# a#-la#-ak#-ti# sza#? isz#-tu kar#-ka#-mi#-is3 mi-gir#-er3#-ra# u3# _lu2-[mesz_] a-li-[ku-ti-szu] [...] x x x [isz]-qu2#-lu#-nim _iti sze-KIN#-ku5#_ _u4# 1(u) 5(disz)#-kam#_ li#-mu# ib#-ni#-[iszkur]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — KTT 073. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: National Museum of Syria, Raqqa, Syria (P392708) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P392708..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.