Position in chronology
Prag 796
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359364.
Why it matters
Transliteration
x [...] _ku3-babbar_ [...] u2? e? a?-x-[...] isz-ti2-ka3 / i-x-[x]-lu u2 a-ta i-na-mu-ru [...] li-bi-ka3 / a-ni-sza-am ta-asz2-ta-na-pa2-ra-am ne2-nu-ma szu-ma la2 ku-a-ti2 a-ma-kam a-ba-am sza-ni-a-am# [la2 ni-szu ...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Assyrian (ca. 1950-1850 BC)) — Prag 796. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic (P359364) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359364..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.