Position in chronology
Cuneiform inscriptions found on the lapis lazuli cylinder seal of Shagarakti-Shuriash were recorded on this clay tablet from Nineveh, Iraq. Circa 689 BCE. Currently housed in the British Museum in London
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: Wikimedia Commons file: File:Cuneiform inscriptions found on the lapis lazuli cylinder seal of Shagarakti-Shuriash were recorded on this clay tablet from Nineveh, Iraq. Circa 689 BCE. Currently housed in the British Museum in London.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACuneiform_inscriptions_found_on_the_lapis_lazuli_cylinder_seal_of_Shagarakti-Shuriash_were_recorded_on_this_clay_tablet_from_Nineveh%2C_Iraq._Circa_689_BCE._Currently_housed_in_the_British_Museum_in_London.jpg. Description: Cuneiform inscriptions found on the lapis lazuli cylinder seal of the Kassite king Shagarakti-Shuriash were recorded on this clay tablet from Nineveh, modern-day Iraq. Circa 689 BCE. Currently housed in the British Museum in London.
Why it matters
Transliteration
Scholarly note
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Cuneiform inscriptions found on the lapis lazuli cylinder seal of the Kassite king Shagarakti-Shuriash were recorded on this clay tablet from Nineveh, modern-day Iraq. Circa 689 BCE. Currently housed
Attribution
Image: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) — Wikimedia Commons. source
Translation excerpted from Wikimedia Commons file: File:Cuneiform inscriptions found on the lapis lazuli cylinder seal of Shagarakti-Shuriash were recorded on this clay tablet from Nineveh, Iraq. Circa 689 BCE. Currently housed in the British Museum in London.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACuneiform_inscriptions_found_on_the_lapis_lazuli_cylinder_seal_of_Shagarakti-Shuriash_were_recorded_on_this_clay_tablet_from_Nineveh%2C_Iraq._Circa_689_BCE._Currently_housed_in_the_British_Museum_in_London.jpg. Description: Cuneiform inscriptions found on the lapis lazuli cylinder seal of the Kassite king Shagarakti-Shuriash were recorded on this clay tablet from Nineveh, modern-day Iraq. Circa 689 BCE. Currently housed in the British Museum in London..
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.