TCBI 1, 191

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P382443.

Why it matters

Transliteration

3(ban2@c) 5(disz) sila3
ma-ma
2(ban2@c) me-me
1(ban2@c) ga-bi2
szu-a gi4

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — TCBI 1, 191. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Banca d'Italia, Rome, Italy (P382443) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P382443..

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

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.

~3500 BCE

Kish Tablet

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.

~2450 BCE

Stele of the Vultures

The earliest historical document in human history.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.