Position in chronology
BAM 6, 531
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P370910.
Transliteration
[...] x x [...] [...] ki#-ma it-id _lu2#_ x x [...] [...] ana# _u-gur sag-du_ [...] [... _szu]-dingir#-ra szu-inanna szu-gidim-ma en2_ [...] [...] x-ma _igi-kar2_ a-na-ku _an-szar2_ ba-an#?-[ap-x ...] [... _muati?]_ u a-nu _gesztu-min dagal_-tu2 isz-ru-ku-usz# [...] liq#?-szi-ia mim-ma szip-ru szu2-a-tu2 [...] [...] x ki ma-la ba-asz-me ina t,up#-[pa-ni?] [...] x [x] x x x x [x x]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — BAM 6, 531. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P370910) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P370910..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.