Position in chronology
Robertson diss. p. 225, UM 29-15-900
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P256567.
Transliteration
5(disz) ud5 5(disz) masz2-gal e2-tur3-sze3 na-gada e2-a-ba-bil2 e2-tur3 ni2-te-na iti ki 5(u) 4(disz) kin-inanna u4 1(u) 7(disz)-kam mu# ki# 8(disz) us2-sa i3-si-in ba-dab-ba
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — Robertson diss. p. 225, UM 29-15-900. 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 (P256567) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P256567..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.