Position in chronology
N 1372
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P276518.
Transliteration
ma-a gal4-la-gu10 [...] mu-ti-in gal4-la#-[...] gal4-la sa6-<ga-gu10> lu2-[...] ki-na-ag2 lu2-[...] ma-a gal4-la-[...] mu-ti-in gal4-la-[...] gal4-la sa6-ga-gu10# [...] ki-na-ag2 [...] e2#?-me-sze3 [...] [x] gal4 [...] [x] ga2?-e [...] e2#? x x x [...] mu-ti-in x [...] e-ne [...] e2? dam mu-lu sa6 [...] x x [...] [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — N 1372. 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 (P276518) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P276518..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.