Position in chronology
AMT pl. 078 05
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P400479.
Transliteration
[...] x [...] [... _gu7?]-mesz_-szu2-ma# [...] [...] _gazi#_ 1/3(disz) _ma-[na_ ...] [...] _szur-min3 pap 6(disz) u2_ [...] [...] ana _dur2_-szu2 _dub_-ma [...] [...] _igi_-lim tar-musz8 [...] [...] x ina _kasz nag-mesz_-ma [...] [... _szeg6?]_-szal i-ta-x [...] [... _im]-gu2#-en#-na# disz_-nisz _sud2_ [...] [...] x x [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — AMT pl. 078 05. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P400479) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P400479..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.