Position in chronology
KTT 310
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P392945.
Transliteration
5(ban2)# _ninda#_ [...] 5(ban2)# _nig2-ar3-ra#_ [... n] 1(barig) _gur ninda_ 1(barig) 5(ban2) szi-ip-ku# a-na# x-x-x u3#? _nig2-[gub] lugal#_ i-na tu-[ut]-tu#-ul _iti sze-[KIN]-ku5#_ _u4# [n-kam]_
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — KTT 310. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: National Museum of Syria, Raqqa, Syria (P392945) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P392945..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.