Position in chronology
SAOC 44, 56
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P257356.
Transliteration
igi nanna-x-zi dumu x [x?]-du3?-x igi a-lu-um-[x?]-zu? igi dingir-ra-[...] dumu ib#-[...] igi i3-li2-[...] dumu [...] igi be-[...]-x-x [...] x du3 [mu ha-am-mu]-ra#-bi lugal-e [...] sze? ka2 RU la x [...] AB me3?-ta bi2#?-ib#?-[szub?-ba?]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — SAOC 44, 56. 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 (P257356) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P257356..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.