Position in chronology
RIME 4.04.01.04, ex. add118
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P460913.
Why it matters
Transliteration
suen-ga-szi-id nita kal-ga lugal unu-ga lugal am-na-nu-um u2-a e2-an-na u4 e2-an-na mu-du3-a e2-gal nam-lugal-la-ka-ni mu-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Early Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1900 BC)) — RIME 4.04.01.04, ex. add118. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P460913) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P460913..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.