Position in chronology
OBTI 145
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P369575.
Transliteration
_2(u) 1(asz) 3(barig) gur sze gesz-pa_ 2(u) 4(asz) 3(barig) gur# sze egir_ _szunigin 4(u) 6(asz) 1(barig) gur sze_ sza mu-na-nu-um im-du-du-ma a-na na-asz-pa-ak dingir-szu-na-s,ir isz-sza-ap-ku _iti_ ki-nu-nu u4 1(disz)-kam _mu_ ma-at ma-ha-zum
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Early Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1900 BC)) — OBTI 145. 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 (P369575) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P369575..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.