Cuneiform tablet- copy of record of entitlement and exemptions to formerly royal lands granted by the šatammu (high priest) of the Esangila temple MET DP263624

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: Wikimedia Commons file: File:Cuneiform tablet- copy of record of entitlement and exemptions to formerly royal lands granted by the šatammu (high priest) of the Esangila temple MET DP263624.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACuneiform_tablet-_copy_of_record_of_entitlement_and_exemptions_to_formerly_royal_lands_granted_by_the_%C5%A1atammu_(high_priest)_of_the_Esangila_temple_MET_DP263624.jpg. Description: Seleucid; Cuneiform tablet; Clay-Tablets-Inscribed

Why it matters

Transliteration

Scholarly note

Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Seleucid; Cuneiform tablet; Clay-Tablets-Inscribed

Attribution

Image: This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art . See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy — Wikimedia Commons. source
Translation excerpted from Wikimedia Commons file: File:Cuneiform tablet- copy of record of entitlement and exemptions to formerly royal lands granted by the šatammu (high priest) of the Esangila temple MET DP263624.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACuneiform_tablet-_copy_of_record_of_entitlement_and_exemptions_to_formerly_royal_lands_granted_by_the_%C5%A1atammu_(high_priest)_of_the_Esangila_temple_MET_DP263624.jpg. Description: Seleucid; Cuneiform tablet; Clay-Tablets-Inscribed.

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

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.

~3500 BCE

Kish Tablet

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.

~2450 BCE

Stele of the Vultures

The earliest historical document in human history.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.