Position in chronology
Prag 842
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359395.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[... ... a]-na# [...] [...] su2 sze2-ri-ib# [...] x u3 a-na [...] i-na pa2-ni-a [...] x ma _ku3-babbar_ 1(disz) _gin2_ [...]-na# ku-ta-ni [...] x mi3-ma la2 a-mur / [...] ah-sza-lim a-na [...] x-szu-nu / um-ma [...] a-wi-lum2 mi3-szu-um [...] tur4#-hu-mi3-it [...] x
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Assyrian (ca. 1950-1850 BC)) — Prag 842. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic (P359395) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P359395..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.