Position in chronology
RINAP 4 Esarhaddon 100, ex. 001
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P400399.
Transliteration
[... pa-nu]-usz-szu2 _iri_-um-[ma ...] [... qit-ru]-ub ta-ha-zi-szu dan-[nu ...] [... ]gesz-bar la [a-ni-hu ...] [... ]3(u)-pap-mesz-su _man gal man_ dan-[nu ...] [... _]lugal-gi-na man gal man_ dan-[nu ...] [...] _babila2 man kur_ szu-me-ri [...] [...] da-ru-u2 sza en-[ba-ni ...] [...] asz-_szur-ki_ sza2 du-[ru-ug-szu ...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — RINAP 4 Esarhaddon 100, 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 (P400399) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P400399..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.