Position in chronology
CDLI Literary 000621, ex. 003
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P346327.
Transliteration
lu2-lu7 dingir-da nu-me-a nu# la-ba-gu-le-en nu# la-ba-tur-re-en i7-da e11-de3-bi ku6 nu-dab-be2 a-sza3-ga e11-de3-bi masz-da3 nu-dab-be2 di? gal-gal-e sa2 nu-ub-be2 kasz4 i3-ib2-e sa2 nu-ub-be2 tukumbi dingir-ra an-na-kam nig2 mu sze21-a an-na gar-gar
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — CDLI Literary 000621, ex. 003. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P346327) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P346327..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.