Position in chronology
SANER 02, 06
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P405219.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(ban2)# zi3-da a#-na geszbun i-nu-u2-ma ugula szu#-i larsa# il-li-kam zi-ga sza3 e2 _a-si#-ri#_ nig2-szu sin-sze-mi iti gu4-si-sa2 u4 2(u) 1(disz)-[kam] mu ri-im-a-nu-um lugal [unu]-ga u3 a2#-dam#-[bi] suh3-<a>-bi si bi2#-in#-[si-sa2]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — SANER 02, 06. 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 (P405219) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P405219..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.