Position in chronology
CDLJ 2007/1 §3.54
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P368405.
Transliteration
_gug : igi masz-da3_ _lamma : igi_ pu-ha-lu _musz-gir2 : igi_ x-x-da3 _igi?-ur? : igi_ kal-bi _[]x-x : igi sud?-du3?_ _igi-kin?-dul? : igi ur-mah_ _za-gin3 : igi musz_
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Babylonian (ca. 626-539 BC)) — CDLJ 2007/1 §3.54. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Kalamazoo Valley Museum, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA (P368405) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P368405..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.