Adab 0965 + 1016-1

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P217593.

Why it matters

Transliteration

[...] ziz2 gur mah
[...]-tu
2(barig@c) a-tu
[n] lal3-la
szunigin 4(asz@c) 2(barig@c) ziz2 gur mah
[sa2]-du11 dingir-re-ne-sze3#?
en-lil2 dub-sar-e
szu# ba-ti
iti# sze-sag-sa6-ga

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Adab 0965 + 1016-1. 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 (P217593) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P217593..

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

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.

~3500 BCE

Kish Tablet

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.

~2450 BCE

Stele of the Vultures

The earliest historical document in human history.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.