Position in chronology
PBS 08/2, 179
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P263012.
Transliteration
4(asz) 2(barig) sze gur sa10-am3 a2 gu4 ugu im-gur-utu sa12-du5 lu2-nin-urta-ke4 in-tuku mu-kux(DU) buru14-ka sza3-ga-ni bi2-ib-du10-ge igi suen-ma-gir dumu lu2-nin-urta igi na-ap-lu-us2-e2-a-ba-la-t,u3 dub-sar iti NE-NE-gar mu id2 sa-am-su-i-lu-na-na-qa2-ab-nu-uh2-szi mu-un-ba-al-la2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — PBS 08/2, 179. 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 (P263012) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P263012..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.