Position in chronology
Prag 624
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359225.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(disz) _gin2_ 1(u) 5(disz) _sze ku3-babbar_ a-du-uq-li 1(disz) la2 1/4(disz) _gin2 ku3-babbar_ a-qa2-nu-we 1(disz) 1/6(disz) _gin2 ku3-babbar_ a-sze2-na-tim 2(u) 2(disz) 1/2(disz) _sze ku3-babbar_ a-szi2-ka3-tim u3 ku-li-ta-nim 1/3(disz) _gin2 ku3-babbar_ a-na uq-ru-a-tim
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Assyrian (ca. 1950-1850 BC)) — Prag 624. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic (P359225) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359225..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.