Position in chronology
Prag 613
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359215.
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na puzur4-a-szur qi2-bi-ma um-ma en-na-su2-en6-ma 2/3(disz) _ma-na_ 5(disz) _gin2_ _na4 za:gin3_ a-szur-ba-ni e-zi-ba-am
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Assyrian (ca. 1950-1850 BC)) — Prag 613. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic (P359215) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359215..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.