Position in chronology
RIME 4.02.13.09, ex. 26
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P428505.
Transliteration
[nanna] [lugal-a-ni-ir] [ku-du-ur-ma-bu-uk] [ad-da kur mar-tu] [dumu si-im-ti-szi-il-ha-ak] [u4 nanna] [a-ra-zu-ne2] [mu-szi-gen-na-a] [ga2-nun-mah] nanna#-[kam] [nam]-ti#-la#-ni#-[sze3] [u3] nam#-[ti] ARAD2#-suen# dumu#-[ni] lugal# larsa#-[ma-sze3] mu#-na-ni-in#-[du3]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Early Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1900 BC)) — RIME 4.02.13.09, ex. 26. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P428505) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P428505..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.