Position in chronology
JCS 24, 093, 10
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P462132.
Transliteration
[n] sila3# i3-nun [szu ti-a ]suen-i-bi-szu [ki a-na-pa-ni]-dingir iti szu-numun!-a u4 2(u) 5(disz) mu tukul szu-nir suen-i-qi2-sza-[am] sza13-dub-ba gudu4-abzu_ [nanna] dumu il3-szu-i-bi2-[szu] ARAD ha-am-mu-ra-[pi2]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — JCS 24, 093, 10. 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 (P462132) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P462132..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.