Position in chronology
Covenant tablets
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: Wikimedia Commons file: File:Covenant tablets.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACovenant_tablets.jpg. Description: cuneiform inscriptions. these are the initial words of the ten commandments. every word is compiled by the appropriate cuneiform syllables. the first word in the right column is hi-nu-a, it is the hebrew "anohi". the second word in the righ
Scholarly note
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: cuneiform inscriptions. these are the initial words of the ten commandments. every word is compiled by the appropriate cuneiform syllables. the first word in the right column is hi-nu-a, it is the heb
Attribution
Image: ShlomoKatzav — Wikimedia Commons. source
Translation excerpted from Wikimedia Commons file: File:Covenant tablets.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACovenant_tablets.jpg. Description: cuneiform inscriptions. these are the initial words of the ten commandments. every word is compiled by the appropriate cuneiform syllables. the first word in the right column is hi-nu-a, it is the hebrew "anohi". the second word in the righ.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.