Position in chronology
OBTI 050
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P369480.
Why it matters
Transliteration
3(disz) _gin2 ku3#-babbar#_ _masz2-bi _utu_ u2-s,a-ab _ki_ nanna-MA-AN#-[...] suen-a x x _szu-ba-an-ti_ a-na masz-kan2-[nim] _ku3-babbar_ u3# _masz2#-bi#_ _i3-la2-e_ it#-ti-dingir#-s,il2-lu# isz-me-dingir? suen-ZU-PA-LU-i3#-li2# hu-na-ni-a _mu_# ha-da-ti masz-kan2 _gisz_ x
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Early Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1900 BC)) — OBTI 050. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P369480) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P369480..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.