SMUI 1913.14.0013

~1950 BCE·Old Babylonian·P420393

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P420393.

Why it matters

Transliteration

2(disz) sila4
szu ti-a
masz2-szu-gid2-gid2
ki ni-iq-ma-a-nu-um
ba-zi
kiszib sza3-tam-e-ne
iti szu-numun-a u4 1(u) 5(disz)-kam
mu ma-da asz2-nun ba-hul

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Early Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1900 BC)) — SMUI 1913.14.0013. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Spurlock Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA (P420393) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P420393..

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

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.

~3500 BCE

Kish Tablet

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.

~2450 BCE

Stele of the Vultures

The earliest historical document in human history.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.