Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 223
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P472523.
Why it matters
Transliteration
3(u@c) la2 1(asz@c) kusz dag2#-ga kusz nig2 u4-da#-kam szu-a gi4-a ur-en-lil2 su-si-kam e2 lu2 azlag2-ge-ne-ka an-kux(KWU636) iti szubax(|MUSZ3xZA|)-nun lugal-a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 223. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Carl L. Lippmann Collection, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain (P472523) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P472523..
Related tablets
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.