Position in chronology
RINAP 5/1 Ashurbanipal 003, ex. 025 ?
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P426269.
Transliteration
x x [...]-a-[x] ad-ke _erin2#-mesz#_ [x x] a#-na ka-sza2-ad# man-na-a-a usz#-[x]-szi-ra# har#-ra#-nu# al-lik-ma qe2#-reb# [x] _bad3#_-asz-szur# usz#-man#-nu# ad-di-ma asz2-[x x] ka-ra-szi ah-sze#-e-ri# [x x] ger-ri-ia isz-me-ma u2-[...] um#-man-szu2# ina szat# mu#-szi ina szi-pir# [...] it#-bu#-u-ni# a-[...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — RINAP 5/1 Ashurbanipal 003, ex. 025 ?. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P426269) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P426269..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.