Position in chronology
MAH 16200
Not yet translated
This tablet is catalogued with its transliteration and photographed, but no published translation exists yet. Our translation engine works through the untranslated corpus every night, oldest first — this page will update the day its turn comes. If you are a specialist and can read it, we would love your help.
From the same catalogue range (near P424095)
Transliteration
me-a enku 2(u@c) nunuz uz lu2-NIM-ga2? 3(u@c) la2 2(asz@c) nunuz uz lugal-da sagi 2(gesz2@c)? nunuz uz lu2#-zulumhi(|SIG2.BU|) 1(u@c) nunuz uz ugu2-ni 4(gesz2@c) la2 1(u@c) nunuz uz lu2-gesz-bar-e3 1(u@c) nunuz uz ur-SZE3-[x (x)]-x
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAH 16200. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva, Switzerland (P424095) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P424095..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.