Position in chronology
MVN 21, 119
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120356.
Why it matters
Transliteration
6(disz) gurusz iti 3(disz)-sze3 iti sig4-i3-szub-gar-ta iti nesag-sze3 gi-zi SIG7-a a-sza3 ka-ma-ri2 u3# [a]-sza3#? szara2#? e2-udu a-sza3 la2-mah-sze3 ugula i7-pa-e3 kiszib3 i-szar-ru-um mu szu-suen lugal-e ma-da za-ab-sza-li mu-hul i-szar-ru-um dub-sar dumu [ur-en]-lil2-la2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 21, 119. 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: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P120356) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120356..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.