Position in chronology
UET 6, 0371
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P254894.
Transliteration
inim ab-ba-sze3 gizzal ke3-de3 u3?-te-qi2-a-am ni2 szu-a gi4-gi4-de3 ra-ma-an-szu szu-lu-ma-am dumu ama-ni-ir sun5-na <ni2> te-ga2 nam-ab-ba szid-de3 en-na ku3-zu ku3 banda3-na na-ga2-ah a2-asz2 sa2 e3-de3-en szesz gal szesz banda3 dugud-de-dam# nam#-lu2-lu7 ke3#-de3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — UET 6, 0371. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P254894) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P254894..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.