Position in chronology
RINAP 4 Esarhaddon 046, ex. 001
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P238702.
Transliteration
[_e2-gal_] sza2 an-szar2-szesz-[szum2-na _lugal gal_-u2] [_lugal_ dan]-nu _lugal szu2 [lugal kur_ asz-szur] [lip]-lip 3(u)-szesz-mesz-[su _lugal gal_-u2] [_lugal_ dan]-nu _lugal szu2 [lugal kur_ asz-szur] [...] x x _be_ [...] [...] sza2 x x [...] [...] _sag_ [...] [...]-ri sza2 [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — RINAP 4 Esarhaddon 046, ex. 001. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P238702) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P238702..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.