Position in chronology
OrAnt 21, 074
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P459864.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(gesz2) 3(u) u8 5(disz) udu-nita2 bar su3-a nig2 lu2 sa-gaz na#-gada a-ab-ba-a dumu# dumu-zi-ba-ni kiszib3 sza3-tam-e-ne iti ab-e3 u4 1(u) 3(disz)-kam mu kisal-mah utu ba-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — OrAnt 21, 074. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P459864) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P459864..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.