Position in chronology
RINAP 4 Esarhaddon x1007, ex. 001
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P429995.
Transliteration
[...] x [...] [... _ta_] mu-[s,ur as-suh-ma ...] [...]-hu-ma [...] [... _lugal-mesz] lu2-nam#-[mesz_ ...] [... ana esz-szu-ti] ap#?-qi2#?-[id ...] [... _an]-szar2_ u _dingir#-[mesz gal-mesz_ ...] [... u2-kin] da#-ri#?-[szam ...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — RINAP 4 Esarhaddon x1007, ex. 001. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem (P429995) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P429995..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.