Position in chronology
BM 137414
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P428557.
Why it matters
Transliteration
lugal kal#-[ga] lugal an# ub#-da# [limmu2-ba] e2-kisz#-nu#-[gal2] e2 libir#-[ra] u4-ul-li2-[a-ta] ba-du3-a [ba-til] mu-na-[du3] ki-bi-[sze3] bi2-in-gi4#-[a] suhusz-bi# im-mi-in-gi4#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Middle Babylonian (ca. 1400-1100 BC)) — BM 137414. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P428557) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P428557..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.