Position in chronology
AMT pl. 039 07
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P238848.
Transliteration
[...] x x [...] [...] [...] u a-gub-szu2 ana _dur2#_ [...] [...] _a-gub2-ba gin_-an ana _sza3_ [...] [...] _erin szur-min3 igi_-lim _sikil#_ [...] [... _]za-gin3 nir2 musz-gir2_ [x ...] [...] ana _sza3_-bi _szub_-di ina _mul4#_ [tusz-bat ...] [...] x a# za# x _gi-du8_ ana _igi_ an# [...] [...] x x [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — AMT pl. 039 07. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P238848) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P238848..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.