Position in chronology
MAD 1, 330
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P215157.
Transliteration
4(barig@c) [...] sze gu4# da-da 4(barig@c) PAP si-hur-sag 2(asz@c) sze gur ma-an-sa-nin-su 4(barig@c) PAP da-di3 4(barig@c) PAP# ku-ru-ub-dingir-dingir 4(barig@c) PAP abba2 4(barig@c) PAP esz18-dar-nu-id 4(asz@c) 1(barig@c) sze gur za-wi 2(barig@c) utu-e2 szunigin [1(u@c)] 1(asz@c) 2(barig@c) sze gur [iti] za#-lil2-tum
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 1, 330. 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 (P215157) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P215157..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.