Position in chronology
TCBI 1, 081
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P382333.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] x [i]-nin-szum ug7 [...]-a#-ni ug7 [...]-gal2#-me ug7 [1(asz@c)] banda3# [1(asz@c)] x-ta [1(asz@c)] nin-nig2-zu 1(asz@c)# bi2-za-za [1(asz@c)] nin-dalla [1(asz@c)] nin#-sza3 [1(asz@c) ...]-bara2-ge [1(asz@c)] mu#-da-kusz2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — TCBI 1, 081. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Banca d'Italia, Rome, Italy (P382333) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P382333..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.