Position in chronology
TCBI 2/1, 34
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P382041.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] ama-ki 2(barig) 3(ban2) nu-banda3 [x] n(barig) 3(ban2) za3-mu 2(barig) 4(ban2) nin-mu-dib x gan-[e2] 2(barig) 2(ban2) nin-KA# [x] mi#-na-ni [x] 1(ban2) nin-KA 1(barig) ama-ki 2(ban2) mi-na-ni
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC) ?) — TCBI 2/1, 34. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Banca d'Italia, Rome, Italy (P382041) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P382041..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.