Position in chronology
RIME 4.04.01.08, ex. add27
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P432704.
Why it matters
Transliteration
lugal-banda3 dingir-ra-ni-ir nin-sun2 ama-a-ni-ir suen-ga-szi-[id] lugal unu-ga lugal# am#-na-nu#-um# u2-a e2-an-na u4 e2-an-na mu-du3-a e2-kankal e2 ki-tusz sza3 hul2-la#-ka#-ne-ne mu-ne-[en]-du3 bala# nam3-lugal#-la#-ka-ne2 3(asz)# sze# gur#-ta 1(u) 2(disz)# ma-na siki-ta 1(u) ma-na uruda-ta 3(ban3) i3-gesz-ta ganba ma-da-na-ka ku3-babbar 1(disz) gin2-e he2-eb2-da-sa10 mu-a-ni mu he2-gal2-la he2-a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Early Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1900 BC)) — RIME 4.04.01.08, ex. add27. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P432704) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P432704..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.