Position in chronology
OB Legal 007
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P257653.
Transliteration
[3(u)] gi-id-lu sza-ak-ku-[tum] sza _szum2-husz_ sza marduk-mu-ba-li2-it, _gudu4-abzu_ _ugu_ dumu-u4-2(u)-kam _dumu_ dingir-szu-ib-ni i-szu-u2 _u4 buru14-sze3_ 3(u) gi-id-lu sza-ak-ku-[tum] sza# _szum2-husz_ [a]-na# marduk-mu-ba-li2-it, _gudu4-abzu_ i-na-ad-di-in _igi_ ib-ni-utu e-ri-ib# _e2#_ DISZ ib-ni-marduk _dumu_ i7-[...] _iti szu-numun-a u4 2(u) 4(disz)-kam#_ _mu# am-mi-s,a-du-qa2 _lugal-e [...]-a_
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — OB Legal 007. 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 (P257653) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P257653..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.