Position in chronology
ARET 03, 247
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P242440.
Why it matters
Transliteration
_en_ lum-na-an _en_ i-bu16(NI)-bu _en_ x x [...] [...] 2(asz@c) _|IB2+n(DISZ@t)|# sa6 dar_ _en_ ur-sa2-um wa ba-da-lum-su3 1(asz@c) 'a3-da-um 1(disz@t) 1(asz@c@90) _aktum_ 1(asz@c) _SAL_ 2(asz@c@90) _|IB2+3(DISZ@t)| dar tug2_ [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — ARET 03, 247. 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 (P242440) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P242440..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.