Position in chronology
OB Legal 028
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P257856.
Transliteration
5(disz) bi-ri-ih-hu _ki 2(disz)_ _giri3_ ma-an-nu-ra-bi-a-wi-lim 6(disz) bi-ri-ih-hu _giri3_ gi-mil-lum a-hi pir-hi-mar-tu 2(u) bi-ri-ih-hu _zi-ga_ _iti apin-du8-a u4 2(u) 3(disz)-kam_ _mu alan-a-ni masz2 gaba tab-ba_
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — OB Legal 028. 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 (P257856) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P257856..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.