Position in chronology
Edinburgh 40
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P453248.
Why it matters
Transliteration
_2(asz) 3(ban2) gur 3(disz) sila3 sze_ hu-bu-ta-tum _ki_ szum-szu-nu-wa-tar ha-si-qum _szu ba#-an#-ti_ _u4 buru14-sze3 sze i3-ag2-e_ _igi_ ka-bi-sum2 _igi_ im-di-er3-ra _igi_ ku-da-a-nu-um _igi_ a-ha-am-u2-ta _mu us2-sa a2-la2 e2# nanna-ra a mu-na-ru_ ha-si-qum dumu ha-li-dingir
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Early Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1900 BC)) — Edinburgh 40. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK (P453248) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P453248..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.