Position in chronology
CDLI Literary 000623, ex. 091
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P346605.
Transliteration
[...] x x x [...] ib2#-ba#-zu# ib2-x izi?-zu nu-te#?-en#?-[...] nin#? gu2-tuku nir-gal2 gu2-en-na-[...] siskur2#-ra-ni szu ba-an-szi-in-[...] sza3 ku3 inanna-ke4 ki#-bi ba-an-na-ab-gi4#? u4-ba an-du10 la-la ba-su13-su13 hi#-li# [...] ba-ra-an-[...] [...] la-la ba#-[...] [...] x zi-de3-esz mu#?-[...] [... ]nin#-gal-e KA-NE [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — CDLI Literary 000623, ex. 091. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P346605) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P346605..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.