Position in chronology
UET 6, 0739
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P346776.
Transliteration
[...] ZA# x x [...] [...] x-e hu-mu-da-la2-e#? [...] a# szed7 ha-ma-de2-de2# [...] a szed7 ha-ma-de2-de2# [...] unu#?-ga igi-ni-sze3 ha-ba-sug2-ge#?-[...] [...] unu#?-ga igi-ni-sze3 ha-ba-sug2-ge#?-[...] [...] musz# za-gin3-na hu-mu-da-la2-e [...] x igi-ni-sze3 mu-da-tusz? [...] x-na-gu10 [...] x bad#-bad#-e#? [...] x-gu10#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — UET 6, 0739. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P346776) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P346776..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.