Position in chronology
Prag 779
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359349.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] x x ma-ti2-ma [_ku3-babbar_] 1(disz) _gin2_ a-na szi2-a-ma-tim u2-la2 tu3-sze2?-<bi-lam> a-szur lu i-de8 a-na-ku i-na _ma-na ku3_ e-t,i2-ir-ka3 a-ta a-na ha-al-pi3-im ta#-asz2-ku-ni a-szur3-ma-lik# [_e2_ i-na t,e6-hi [...]-x-ku u3? [...] [...] x [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Assyrian (ca. 1950-1850 BC)) — Prag 779. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic (P359349) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359349..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.