Position in chronology
KTT 036
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P392672.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(disz) _udu_ a-sa3-dan mi3-il3-ki-li-il3 x-ra-a-an 1(disz) _udu_ s,i2-li 1(disz) _udu tur_ a-da-ma-an# i3-ir-bu-um
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Early Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1900 BC)) — KTT 036. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: National Museum of Syria, Raqqa, Syria (P392672) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P392672..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.