Position in chronology
Tablet Zimri-Lim Louvre AO20161
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: Wikimedia Commons file: File:Tablet Zimri-Lim Louvre AO20161.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ATablet_Zimri-Lim_Louvre_AO20161.jpg. Description: Tablet of Zimri-Lim, king of Mari, concerning the foundation of an ice-house in Terqa. Baked clay, ca. 1780 BC. (See en:Zimrilim , reign 1779 BC - 1757 BC.)
Why it matters
Transliteration
Scholarly note
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Tablet of Zimri-Lim, king of Mari, concerning the foundation of an ice-house in Terqa. Baked clay, ca. 1780 BC. (See en:Zimrilim , reign 1779 BC - 1757 BC.)
Attribution
Image: Unknown author Unknown author — Wikimedia Commons. source
Translation excerpted from Wikimedia Commons file: File:Tablet Zimri-Lim Louvre AO20161.jpg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ATablet_Zimri-Lim_Louvre_AO20161.jpg. Description: Tablet of Zimri-Lim, king of Mari, concerning the foundation of an ice-house in Terqa. Baked clay, ca. 1780 BC. (See en:Zimrilim , reign 1779 BC - 1757 BC.).
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.