Cuneiform tablet B - DPLA - 430332ed96a65a68ee128c4c814132a2 (page 6)

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: Wikimedia Commons file: File:Cuneiform tablet B - DPLA - 430332ed96a65a68ee128c4c814132a2 (page 6).jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACuneiform_tablet_B_-_DPLA_-_430332ed96a65a68ee128c4c814132a2_(page_6).jpg. Description: Ms.; Title devised by cataloger.; Location and date range conjectured by cataloger.; Script: Inscribed in cuneiform characters.

Why it matters

Transliteration

Scholarly note

Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Ms.; Title devised by cataloger.; Location and date range conjectured by cataloger.; Script: Inscribed in cuneiform characters.

Attribution

Image: This file was contributed to Wikimedia Commons by Boston Public Library as part of a cooperation project. The donation was facilitated by the Digital Public Library of America . Record in source catalog DPLA identifier: 430332ed96a65a68ee128c4c814132a2 Boston Public Library identifier: Local call: RARE BKS G.Cab.3.140; Local barcode: 39999086126313 — Wikimedia Commons. source
Translation excerpted from Wikimedia Commons file: File:Cuneiform tablet B - DPLA - 430332ed96a65a68ee128c4c814132a2 (page 6).jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACuneiform_tablet_B_-_DPLA_-_430332ed96a65a68ee128c4c814132a2_(page_6).jpg. Description: Ms.; Title devised by cataloger.; Location and date range conjectured by cataloger.; Script: Inscribed in cuneiform characters..

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

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.

~3500 BCE

Kish Tablet

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.

~2450 BCE

Stele of the Vultures

The earliest historical document in human history.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.