Position in chronology
KAJ 210
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P282223.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(disz) _gu4_ 1(u) _udu-nita2-mesz_ na-mur-tu sza iszkur-ri-im-dingir-mesz _agrig_ a-na masz-tukul-asz+szur u2-qar-ri-bu-ni a-na mu-ta pa-aq-du _gu4_ a-na ba-na-a-sza2-1(u) _szem_ pa-qi-id a-na la ma-sza-e sza-t,i2-ir ku-zal-lu _u4_ 1(u) 1(disz)-_kam2_ li-mu 3(u)-sze-ia
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Middle Assyrian (ca. 1400-1000 BC)) — KAJ 210. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, Germany (P282223) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P282223..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.