Position in chronology
TJDB pl. 68, MAH 16646
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P424290.
Transliteration
_5(disz)# gin2 ku3-babbar_ _mu-kux(DU)_ suen-ma-gir _dumu_ szu-pi2-ia-tum nam-har-ti dumu-babila2 _szandana#_ _iti gan-gan-e3 [u4 n-kam]_ _mu_ sa-am-su#-i#-lu#-[na] _lugal#-[e]_ ki#-sur-ra sa-bu-[um] [dumu-babila2] [dumu dingir-da-mi-iq] [ARAD isztaran]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — TJDB pl. 68, MAH 16646. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva, Switzerland (P424290) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P424290..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.