Position in chronology
Cuneiform tablet (AM 1954.22.1-4)
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: Wikimedia Commons file: File:Cuneiform tablet (AM 1954.22.1-4).jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACuneiform_tablet_(AM_1954.22.1-4).jpg. Description: Fragment of brick- triangular shaped; incised figures on face between parallel lines. Babylon.
Scholarly note
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Fragment of brick- triangular shaped; incised figures on face between parallel lines. Babylon.
Attribution
Image: API data Catalogue record Photo — Wikimedia Commons. source
Translation excerpted from Wikimedia Commons file: File:Cuneiform tablet (AM 1954.22.1-4).jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACuneiform_tablet_(AM_1954.22.1-4).jpg. Description: Fragment of brick- triangular shaped; incised figures on face between parallel lines. Babylon..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.