CDLI Literary 000754, ex. 005

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P265455.

Transliteration

[...]-mu# szu# [...]
[...]-sar#-re-en nig2#-[...]
[...]-ra#-bi GU7-sze3 [...]
i3# du10#-ga# murgu sza3 ga-ga-na a-x mi-ni-ib-bala-bala-[...]
[...] mu-ni-sze3 nig2 mu-ni-in-ba har szu-na bi2-in-du3
[um]-mi-a sza3 hul-la-ni-ta szud3 mu-na-an-x
[...] inim-mu-sze3 BA KU u3 nam-[...] mu-bi2-du10-ga
[...]-dub#-sar-ra sag-bi us-sa-a [...]-bi#-sze3 i3-til3-la
[...]-ba#-gi4-bi-na-za# [...]-sze3 mu-e-szum2-[...]
[...] mu#-in-ni-[...]-dah#-[...]
[...] x [...]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — CDLI Literary 000754, ex. 005. 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 (P265455) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P265455..

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

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.

~3500 BCE

Kish Tablet

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.

~2450 BCE

Stele of the Vultures

The earliest historical document in human history.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.