Position in chronology
TCBI 1, 142
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P382394.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] tug2 nig2-lam2# usz-bar ki-la2-bi [...] [...] bar-dul5 usz-bar# ki-la2-bi [...] [ma]-ma#-um-mi [n tug2 nig2]-lam2# [usz-bar] x-x-[...] ki-la2#-[bi] [...] tug2 nig2-lam2 usz-bar ki#-la2-bi me-nigar-ta
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — TCBI 1, 142. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Banca d'Italia, Rome, Italy (P382394) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P382394..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.