Position in chronology
Nimrud NW Palace zzz015 = RIMA 2.0.101.023, ex. add419
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P416484.
Transliteration
[...] szul3-ma-nu-sag _man kur_ asz-szur _nun_ a-[...] [... _x]-mesz_ sza2 a-pe-lu-szi!-[...] [...]-szu2 e2 a-di-ni sza2 hat-ti# [...] [...] u2-sza2-pil2 1(disz) me 2(u) tik-pi [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — Nimrud NW Palace zzz015 = RIMA 2.0.101.023, ex. add419. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, USA (P416484) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P416484..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.