Position in chronology
N 4141
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P279013.
Transliteration
x x [...] x x [...] iri x x lugal-bi [...] eresz-bi gesz?-[...] ama lugal-[la ...] u4#-ba x [...] [...] x [...] ki [...] igi-mu in-x-[...] ki-sikil ku3 szu TE-[...] ki-sikil za-gin3# szu# [...] nu-me-a-ra x [...] x x x [...] [mu]-szid-bi 1(gesz2) 2(u)-am3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — N 4141. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P279013) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P279013..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.