Position in chronology
N 1342
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P276489.
Transliteration
[...] x [...] [...]-ra mu-na-gub [...] [...]-x-ni-ir mu-na-gub [...] [...] sza3 ku3-ge# bi2-pa3 [...] [...] ti-la zi kalam-ma x [...] [... gu3] zi# mu-na-de2-a mu [...] [...]-sze3 zi-de3-esz2 DU# [...] [...] nin-sun2-ka-ra nam-du10# x [...] [...] x ki ag-ga2-ni-ra mu# [...] [...] ni2 husz gur3-[ru ...] [...] x [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — N 1342. 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 (P276489) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P276489..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.