Position in chronology
Foundation tablet Nanaia Louvre AO4412
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: Wikimedia Commons file: File:Foundation tablet Nanaia Louvre AO4412.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFoundation_tablet_Nanaia_Louvre_AO4412.jpg. Description: Foundation tablet of the temple of Nanaia, built by Kudur-Mabuk and Rim-Sin of Larsa. Limestone, ca. 1820 BC. (If this is limestone, it is meant for permanence; it is identical looking to the " clay tablets ".
Why it matters
Transliteration
Scholarly note
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Foundation tablet of the temple of Nanaia, built by Kudur-Mabuk and Rim-Sin of Larsa. Limestone, ca. 1820 BC. (If this is limestone, it is meant for permanence; it is identical looking to the " clay t
Attribution
Image: Unknown artist Unknown artist — Wikimedia Commons. source
Translation excerpted from Wikimedia Commons file: File:Foundation tablet Nanaia Louvre AO4412.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFoundation_tablet_Nanaia_Louvre_AO4412.jpg. Description: Foundation tablet of the temple of Nanaia, built by Kudur-Mabuk and Rim-Sin of Larsa. Limestone, ca. 1820 BC. (If this is limestone, it is meant for permanence; it is identical looking to the " clay tablets "..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.