Position in chronology
SANER 02, 19
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P405207.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(barig) 4(ban2) zi3-da# a-na geszbun ugula mar-tu-mesz u3# a-hi-a-tum zi-ga [sza3] e2# a-si-rum [nig2]-szu# suen-sze-mi [iti szu]-numun#-a u4 9(disz)-[kam] [mu ri]-im-a-[nu-um lugal-e] [unu]-ga u3# a2#-dam#-bi# a-pil-mar#-[tu] dumu dingir-lam-[uru4] ARAD# [mar-tu]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — SANER 02, 19. 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 (P405207) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P405207..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.