Position in chronology
KTT 159
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P392794.
Transliteration
1(asz) _a-gar3 sze ninda_ 1(asz) _a-gar3 2(asz) 1(barig) gur sze kasz_ _sa2-du11!(SAG)_ a-bi-la-ma-si2 _iti sze-KIN-ku5_ _u4 3(u)-kam_ li#-mu# iszkur-ba-ni
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — KTT 159. 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 (P392794) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P392794..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.