OrNS 40, 398 12

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124788.

Why it matters

Transliteration

a-na i-ri-dan
u3 dingir-ra-bi2
gi-bi-ma
me-nu-um dingir-ra-bi2
ku3-babbar 1(disz) ma-na
a-na lu2-inanna
me-nu-um la isz-qu2-ul
i-na s,i2-bi-ti-im
na-di3-a-ku
szu ib-ra-am lu-te-e

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — OrNS 40, 398 12. 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 (P124788) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124788..

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

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.

~3500 BCE

Kish Tablet

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.

~2450 BCE

Stele of the Vultures

The earliest historical document in human history.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.