Position in chronology
CDLI Literary 000621, ex. 004
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P346328.
Transliteration
lu2-lux(URU) dingir-da nu-me-a u2 la-ba-gu-le-en u2 la-ba-tur-en i7-da a dab!-be2 ku6 nu-um#?-dab a-sza3-ga-ni dab-be2 masz-da3# nu-um#?-dab di-ir!-ga sa2 nu-ub-du# di gal-gal-la sa2 nu-ub-du# tukumbi nig2 dingir-ra-ni a#?-na#?-[...] nig2# mu# [...] a#?-na#? x [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — CDLI Literary 000621, ex. 004. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P346328) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P346328..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.