Position in chronology
BIN 10, 135
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P236679.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(ban2) esir2 E2-A dag-szi-ru-um-sze3 2(disz) kusz gu4 babbar HAR gesz-bi gesz diri ma2 iri-la-sze3 sukkal mah maszkim giri3 puzur4-en-lil2#? lu2 [...] x [...] ki szu-nin-kar-ak#-ta ba-zi iti gu4-si-su mu egi2-zi-an-na# masz2-e i3-pa3# u4 1(u) 6(disz)-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Early Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1900 BC)) — BIN 10, 135. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P236679) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P236679..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.