Position in chronology
RIME 4.03.07.x1002, ex. 01
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P447982.
Transliteration
en#-lil2# er-s,e#-tim# x [...] _tukul-tukul#_-szu usz#-[te-sze-er _kaskal_-am] a-na sza-qa2-asz2 za-i-ri u2-sza-ar#-[di ...] za-ba4-ba4 u3 inanna _en-mesz_ [...] [a]-na# szu-um-qu2-ut a#-[a-bi-szu ...] [a]-na# ka-sza-ad ir-ni-it#-[ti-szu ...] [il]-li-ku re-s,u-us#-[su ...] [...] x szu#-mi# isz#-ku-un NUN [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — RIME 4.03.07.x1002, ex. 01. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P447982) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P447982..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.