Position in chronology
CDLI Literary 000563, ex. 004 & 000564, ex. 011
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P276651.
Transliteration
[i-din]-da#-gan# lugal-zu [na]-ab-be2-a [kaskal-mu ni2]-tuku# sag gi4-a gu2 i7#-da# min-a-bi mu#-da#-[ab-bala-e] [ka]-ku-la-tum-sze3# gaba#-ri# gi7#-da#-zu#-u3#-ne# lamma# da#-[gan] kab#-ta u3 en#-lil2-le#?-ke4#? erin2-na# gu2 bi2-ri# me-lam2-mu kalam-ma ba-e-dul u3 za-e nam-ur#-sag# nam-kal-ga#-zu kur-BAD?-bi-sze3# ba-e-te#? [lu2]-kur2 [dab5-ba] ba-an-[da-an-ku4] erin2# lugal-[a iri-ta] e3#-a-ba# ugnim#-[ma igi im-mi]-x-di-de3-x lugal-mu-ra u3#-na#-[a-du11]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — CDLI Literary 000563, ex. 004 & 000564, ex. 011. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P276651) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P276651..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.