Position in chronology
Clay Tablet with Cuneiform Script of Crown Prince, Son of Nebuchadnezzar II
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: Wikimedia Commons file: File:Clay Tablet with Cuneiform Script of Crown Prince, Son of Nebuchadnezzar II.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AClay_Tablet_with_Cuneiform_Script_of_Crown_Prince%2C_Son_of_Nebuchadnezzar_II.jpg. Description: Clay Tablet with Cuneiform Script of Crown Prince, Son of Nebuchadnezzar II Mesopotamia 1500-539 BC Gallery, British Museum, London, England, UK. Complete indexed photo collection at WorldHistoryPics.com.
Why it matters
Transliteration
Scholarly note
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Clay Tablet with Cuneiform Script of Crown Prince, Son of Nebuchadnezzar II Mesopotamia 1500-539 BC Gallery, British Museum, London, England, UK. Complete indexed photo collection at WorldHistoryPics.
Attribution
Image: Gary Todd — Wikimedia Commons. source
Translation excerpted from Wikimedia Commons file: File:Clay Tablet with Cuneiform Script of Crown Prince, Son of Nebuchadnezzar II.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AClay_Tablet_with_Cuneiform_Script_of_Crown_Prince%2C_Son_of_Nebuchadnezzar_II.jpg. Description: Clay Tablet with Cuneiform Script of Crown Prince, Son of Nebuchadnezzar II Mesopotamia 1500-539 BC Gallery, British Museum, London, England, UK. Complete indexed photo collection at WorldHistoryPics.com..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.