Position in chronology
JCS 24, 093, 11
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P462145.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[n] sila3 i3-nun szu-ti-a sin-i-bi-szu ki a-na-pa-ni-dingir ba-zi iti gan-gan-e3 u4 2(u) 8(disz)-kam mu lugal-ki-gub suen-i-bi-szu# dumu suen-i-qi2-sza-[am] ARAD2 i-lu-[ni]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Early Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1900 BC)) — JCS 24, 093, 11. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P462145) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P462145..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.