Position in chronology
Prag 626
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359227.
Why it matters
Transliteration
ki-ma ma-ak-na-kam sza <<_e2-gal_>> _e2-gal_-lim <<ni>> a-sa2-la2-im ni-zi-zu-ni u3 du-mu-uq a-bi4-a i-na ma-ak-na-ki-im qa2-ab2-li-im i-ba-szi2-u2 a-mi3-a-tim a-ka3-ri!-im a-ta-wu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Assyrian (ca. 1950-1850 BC)) — Prag 626. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic (P359227) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359227..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.