MVN 18, 678

~2032 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P120039

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120039.

Why it matters

Transliteration

[x] gil
gid2#-bi 2(disz) 1/2(disz) ninda-ta
gesz#-kin-ti-sze3
ki# a-gu-ta
kiszib3# lugal-nir
[iti] e2-iti-6(disz)
[mu] szu-suen lugal#-e ma-da [za]-ab#-sza-li [mu]-hul
lugal-[nir]
dub-sar
dumu ur-[szara2]
sza13-dub-ba-ka

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 18, 678. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y6 — Land of Zabšali destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P120039) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120039..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.