Position in chronology
Prag 823
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359378.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] x-ma u2-la2 us-ta-ka3-da-ni i-pi2-a-ma a-mi3-sza-am i-ta-al-kam u2 sza-zu-uz-ta-ka3-ma <sza> tu3-sza-ku-du u2-la2 us-ta-ki-da-ni [...] x [... a]-ma-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Assyrian (ca. 1950-1850 BC)) — Prag 823. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic (P359378) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359378..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.