Position in chronology
StLouis 053
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P213219.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(barig@c) zu2-lum# [gur] zak-tum 2(barig@c) zu2-lum gur 1(u@c) gurdub a-si e#-la-la 3(barig@c) zu2-lum gur 1(u@c) 6(asz@c) gurdub a-si sza3-bi-ta 1(u@c) gurdub abba2 4(asz@c) nar 2(asz@c) za-bar-ti-um 2(u@c) la2 3(asz@c) gi-lam igi 3(disz)-gal2 lugal-la2 lugal-nig2-zu# nu-kiri6# [x]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — StLouis 053. 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 (P213219) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P213219..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.