Position in chronology
OBTI 071
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P369501.
Why it matters
Transliteration
_3(barig) 2(ban2) sze_ ga-mi-lum _3(disz)#-kam#_ 3(barig) 2(ban2) hu-za-lum _dumu_ ARAD2-utu hu-bu-ta-tum _ki_ dingir-szu-na-s,ir u3 nanna-arhusz _szu ba-an-ti_ [a-na] masz-kan2-nim [sze]-am _i3-[ag2-e]_ _igi_ a-bu-um-dingir _dumu_ [suen-eri-ba-am] [...] ri-[isz-utu] u3 mu-na-nu-um _dub-sar_ _[mu] e2 esz18-dar ba-dim2_
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Early Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1900 BC)) — OBTI 071. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P369501) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P369501..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.