Position in chronology
AMT pl. 044 07
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P400271.
Transliteration
_DISZ na sag#? sza3_-szu2 x [...] _sza3-mesz_-szu2 _mu2-mu2#_ [...] _bun2_-szu2 it ta# [...] _a-gar-gar masz-da3_ x [...] ina _kasz_ ta-la-[asz ...] ka-la _uzu_ [...] _nu_ pa-tan _nag_ [...] _ka a-ab-ba#_ [...] [...] _dab_-su [...] na-szi [...] x ki
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — AMT pl. 044 07. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P400271) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P400271..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.