Position in chronology
Adab 0988
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P217606.
Why it matters
Transliteration
iti ezem-nin-mug u4 6(disz@t) zal-la-asz sze12 hul-bi i3-gal2-am3 sze |GIxU| zi-ga ib2-usz2 ama-ga bad3 ka ib2-kesz2-am3 u4 7(disz@t)-kam-ma-ka u4 ba-bur2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Adab 0988. 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 (P217606) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P217606..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.