Position in chronology
RA 079, 021 02
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P216401.
Transliteration
1(disz@t) dug gir zi3-gu ensi2-gal# 3(u) ku6 [x] x duru5 1(disz@t) gurdub ku6 agargara#? [x] lugal#-zi [(x)] e2#?-gal 1(disz@t) PAP ku6 sumasz 1(u) 5(disz@t)? ku6 duru5 ur-szu szu-ku6 mu-kux(DU)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — RA 079, 021 02. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, USA (P216401) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P216401..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.