Position in chronology
OIP 092, 0004
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P382690.
Why it matters
Transliteration
6(disz) ap-pi-x-x _sze-bar-mesz_ kur-min2 mu-isz-ka4-na ba-ir-sza2-an ku-ut-ka4 hu-ut-_ki-min_-na be-ul 2(u) 4(disz@v)-na
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Achaemenid (547-331 BC)) — OIP 092, 0004. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: National Museum, Tehran, Iran (P382690) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P382690..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.