Position in chronology
N 0290
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P275528.
Transliteration
_2(barig@c) u2#-hab2_ _1(u@c) ba_ _1(asz@c) absin3 szembix(|TAxSIG7|) erin-na_ _ki# [x]-x kisz#-sze3_ [x x]-tu [x x]-du3# an-na-szum2 _iti ku3-SZIM_ _u4 1(u) zal-la-a_
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — N 0290. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P275528) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P275528..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.