Position in chronology
ARET 03, 087
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P242272.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[n] 'a3-da-um 2(disz@t) 1(asz@c) _aktum_ 1(asz@c) _|IB2+3(DISZ@t)| dar sa6 tug2_ du-bi2-zi-kir [...] _lu2 kar_ ma-nu-wa-ad _al6-tusz_ zu2!-sza!-ga-bu3 1(asz@c) _SAL_ isz-da-la2 ASZ _gab_ [...] kak-[mi]-um _al6-tusz_ NI-ti-ba 4(asz@c) _gu-dul3_ 4(asz@c) _SAL_ 6(asz@c)# [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 087. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: National Museum of Syria, Idlib, Syria (P242272) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P242272..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.