TCBI 1, 019

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P382271.

Why it matters

Transliteration

1(asz@c) kusz# ab2
[szu]-a#-gi4#-am3#
lu2#-na#-[nam]
[...]
e2#-[...]
mu#-[kux(DU)]
iti# szu#-gar#
mes-ki-gal-[la]
ensi2
adab

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC) ?) — TCBI 1, 019. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Banca d'Italia, Rome, Italy (P382271) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P382271..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.