Position in chronology
TJA FM 12
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P315294.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[n ...] _udu#-hi-a_ n sila4# du hi-a_ sza qa2-ti dumu-a-ra#-ah-tum nam-ha-ar-ti bu-ni-ia-tum# _ki_ dumu-a-ra-ah-tum _igi_ suen-e-ri-ba-am _dumu_ nu-ur2-utu _masz2-szu-gid2-gid2_ _igi_ SIG-<a>-ra-ah-tum _igi_ du-mu-uq-utu _nimgir_ _iti bara2-za3-gar u4 1(u) 3(disz)-kam_ _mu#_ sa#-am-su-i-lu-na _lugal-e [bad3 an]-da# sa2-a [zimbir]_
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — TJA FM 12. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK (P315294) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P315294..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.