Position in chronology
MVN 21, 122
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120359.
Transliteration
3(disz) gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3 sa-du8 ak u3 lugal a-sza3 GAN2-mah gub-ba 2(disz) gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3 bar-la2 i7 szul-pa-e3-ka e2-szah2 si-ga ugula lu2-[...] kiszib3 lu2-ha-ia3 mu szu-suen lugal-e ma-da za-ab-sza-li mu-hul lu2-ha-ia3 dub-sar dumu ur-e11-e szusz3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 21, 122. 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 (P120359) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120359..
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.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.