Position in chronology
RIME 4.02.07.01, ex. 21-22
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P270042.
Transliteration
[szutum ku3] e2 ki-[ag2-ga2-ni] sza3 uri5#[-ma] mu-un#-[na-du3] inanna nin-a-ni-ir su-mu-el3 nita kal-ga lugal uri5-ma lugal ki-en-gi ki-uri szutum ku3 e2 ki-ag2-ga2-ni sza3 uri5-ma# mu-un-na-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Early Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1900 BC)) — RIME 4.02.07.01, ex. 21-22. 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 (P270042) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P270042..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.