Position in chronology
Covenant tablets
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: Wikimedia Commons file: File:Covenant tablets.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACovenant_tablets.jpg. Description: cuneiform inscriptions. these are the initial words of the ten commandments. every word is compiled by the appropriate cuneiform syllables. the first word in the right column is hi-nu-a, it is the hebrew "anohi". the second word in the righ
Why it matters
Transliteration
Scholarly note
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: cuneiform inscriptions. these are the initial words of the ten commandments. every word is compiled by the appropriate cuneiform syllables. the first word in the right column is hi-nu-a, it is the heb
Attribution
Image: ShlomoKatzav — Wikimedia Commons. source
Translation excerpted from Wikimedia Commons file: File:Covenant tablets.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACovenant_tablets.jpg. Description: cuneiform inscriptions. these are the initial words of the ten commandments. every word is compiled by the appropriate cuneiform syllables. the first word in the right column is hi-nu-a, it is the hebrew "anohi". the second word in the righ.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.