Position in chronology
KTT 286
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P392921.
Transliteration
1(disz) _munus-tur_ ta-al-mu-usz-e-li# _ba-usz2_ i-na sza-la-tim <<x>> sza isz-tu li-ib-bi ma-a-tim ir-du-nim _giri3_ zi-im-ri-da-gan szi-di-ip-ew-ri u2-s,ur-pi4-lugal [u3] i#-ba#-lum# [_iti_ li-li]-ia#-tim [_u4 n-kam_] [li-mu ri]-ig#-ma-[nu]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — KTT 286. 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 (P392921) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P392921..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.