Position in chronology
CDLI Literary 000340, ex. 014
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P346457.
Transliteration
[...] si#-si-ge5-[...] [...] x ak-da-ni# [...] a-na nu-me-a-bi [...]-bala#? zu2 im-mi-in-gaz2 [...] a-na im-de6-a-bi [...] im-mi-ib2-ra [...] sa-sa-da-ni [...] za3-bi nu-un-zu [...] un3#-na kur utu-e3-sze3 igi mu-un#-du8#-ru#? [...] kur utu-szu2-usz-sze3 igi mu-un-du8#-[ru] [...] x [...] mu#-ni#-[...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — CDLI Literary 000340, ex. 014. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P346457) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P346457..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.