Position in chronology
RINAP 5/1 Ashurbanipal 003, ex. 036 ?
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P422487.
Transliteration
[...]-bi#-szu2# is#-hu#-la# [...] [...] _gaba abul muru2#_ [x] [...]-ra# mah-hu-risz# [x] [...] 1(u) 5(disz) _ug3-mesz_ kul-lu-[x] [...] _lugal elam-ma#_ [x] [...] _dumu# marduk_-[x x] [...] in#-nab#-[x]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — RINAP 5/1 Ashurbanipal 003, ex. 036 ?. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P422487) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P422487..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.