USP 68

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P217424.

Why it matters

Transliteration

[...] kasz# 5(ban2@c) [...]
[...] dingir-kal 2(disz@t)-bi
[n] ninda 2(ban2@c) kasz 5(ban2@c) szu-e3-a
[...] szu#-i3-li2-su
[n] ninda 1(ban2@c) kasz 5(ban2@c) 1/2(disz@c) dug 3(ban2@c)
[...] ga2#? [...]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — USP 68. 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 (P217424) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P217424..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.