Position in chronology
Anonymous 271222
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P271222.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(ban2@c) zu2-lum 3(asz@c) gesz nig2-du tak4 x 2(asz@c) gesz nig2?-DU x dingir-lugal-iri-bar nag bulug3-bulug3 lugal-im-szul-nu-esz3 an-na-szum2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Anonymous 271222. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: private: anonymous, unlocated (P271222) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P271222..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.