Position in chronology
USP 73
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P217429.
Why it matters
Transliteration
la2-ia3 3(u) ud5 3(asz@c) as2-gar3 sza3-du10 3(u) la2 3(asz@c) masz2 1(asz@c) i3 dug 2(disz) sila3 1(barig) 1(ban2) 3(disz) sila3 ga-ar3-ra 1(asz@c) siki gu2 3(u@c) la2 1(asz@c) ma-na la2-ia3 ur-sa6 sipa ud5 lugal-gigir2-e umma nig2-ka9-bi i3-ak zi-zi-ga-bi ib2-ta-zi 2(disz@t) mu 2(disz@t) iti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — USP 73. 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 (P217429) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P217429..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.