Position in chronology
AS 16, 199-209
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P306518.
Why it matters
Transliteration
4(asz) gu2 siki gu2 udu 2(asz) gig gur 2(asz) sze gesz-i3 ki lu2-ma2-a-a ha-tin-i-ba-nu-um# dumu ap-ka-lu-um kaskal silim-ma-bi ti#-bi-ib-ta-am lu2-ma2-a-a-ra in-na-an-szum2 mu lugal-bi in-pa3 igi ur-szul-pa-e3 masz2#-szu-gid2-gid2 [igi e]-ri#-isz-ti-i3-li2 ugula szu-ku6 iti gu4-si-sa2 u4 2(u)-kam mu szu-nir gal min-a-bi e2 nanna-sze3 i-ni-in-[ku4-re]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Early Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1900 BC)) — AS 16, 199-209. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Yale Babylonian Collection, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (P306518) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P306518..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.