Position in chronology
Adab 0979
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P217603.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(asz@c) gurdub zu2-lum e2-un ni-is-qu2 5(u) ku6-a 1(u) ku6 gam-gam nig2-du7 szu-ku6 1(ban2@c) la2 1(disz) sila3 dabin [a-ga]-de3 [...] mu-kux(DU)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Adab 0979. 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 (P217603) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P217603..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.