Position in chronology
RINAP 5/1 Ashurbanipal 009, ex. 248 ?
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P392282.
Transliteration
e2-ar-ra-bi e2#-[...] ma-dak#-tu# szu-sza2#-an# bu#-[x]-e _iri-sze#_-[x] szu2-man-a-ni# [...] al-ga-ri-ga# [...] du6-tu-u2-bu# [...] bad3-un-da-si# [...]-ma# bu-bi-lu# [...] e2-bu-na-ki# [...] qa#-ab-ri-na#-ma# [...] x x x
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — RINAP 5/1 Ashurbanipal 009, ex. 248 ?. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P392282) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P392282..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.