Position in chronology
OIP 079, 03
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P332992.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a-na ...]-x-ri-x-ia [qi2-bi]-ma [um-ma a-szur?]-i-din-ma szum2-ma mi-im-ma!(SZU) la-asz-szu-x ta-ta-pa-al-szu u3 ar-hi-isz la-a ta-ta-na-asz2-szu a-na _ugu_ du-a-ki te-el-li isz-tu ta-at-ta-na-szu-ni x-x a-na _ugu_-ia al#-ka t,e2-e-ma qi2-bi-a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Middle Assyrian (ca. 1400-1000 BC)) — OIP 079, 03. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P332992) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P332992..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.