Position in chronology
RINAP 5/1 Ashurbanipal 003, ex. 029 ?
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P452377.
Transliteration
[x x?] x [...] a#-bi-ia-ta#-a'# [...] a-na nina il-lik-am-[...] a-de-e a-na e-pesz _ARAD#-[...]_ ku-um ia-u-ta#-a'# asz2-[...] _ku3-sig17 igi-min#-mesz# babbar-dili-mesz#_ [...] _ansze-gam-mal-mesz ansze-mesz_ [...] man-da-at-tu2 szat-ti-szam-ma u2#-[...] [...]-di#-in _lugal#_ [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — RINAP 5/1 Ashurbanipal 003, ex. 029 ?. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P452377) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P452377..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.