Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 235
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P472535.
Transliteration
4(asz@c) zabar ku3-sig17 ki-la2-bi# 1(asz@c) ma-na 1(u@c) 9(asz@c)# zabar ku3-babbar ki#-[la2-bi n] 4(asz@c) ma-na 3(u@c) zabar uruda-zabar ki-<la2-bi> 1(u@c) 5(asz@c) ma-na szu-a gi4-a da-da simug-kam iti nig2-kiri6
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 235. 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 (P472535) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P472535..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.