Position in chronology
Adab 0698
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P217495.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[2(ban2)] la2 2(disz) sila3 5(asz@c) gin2 [sze] gur sa2-du11 sze max(SI) gal2-la la2-ia3 1(u) 1(barig) 1(ban2) 5(disz) sila3 ziz2 gur
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Adab 0698. 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 (P217495) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P217495..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.