Position in chronology
RINAP 5/1 Ashurbanipal 003, ex. 045 ?
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P422652.
Transliteration
_iri#-mesz_ sza2#-a#-[...] _ug3#-mesz_ a-szib lib3-[...] _adda#-mesz_-szu2-nu# [...] _kusz-mesz_-szu2-nu [...] lugal-lu-da3#-[...] ina mu-s,ur isz#-ku#-[...] sza# _hul_-tu ik-pu#-[...] [x] qa-ti as,-bat u2#-[...] [x _x]-ne#-nig2 u4 2(disz)-kam2#_ [...]-nu# _[x]-kur#_ hi-in-dan
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — RINAP 5/1 Ashurbanipal 003, ex. 045 ?. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P422652) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P422652..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.