Position in chronology
RIME 4.02.07.add03, ex. 01
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P433183.
Why it matters
Transliteration
nin-szubur lugal-a-ni-ir nam-ti su-mu-el3 ib-ku-er3-ra lu2 udu dumu ur-ni-ia nam-ti-la-ni-sze3 a mu-na-ru
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Early Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1900 BC)) — RIME 4.02.07.add03, ex. 01. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (P433183) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P433183..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.