MVN 21, 092

~2036 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P120329

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120329.

Why it matters

Transliteration

2(u) 6(disz) gurusz sza3-gu4 u4 1(disz)-sze3
ki-su7 hub2-te-na-ka gub-ba
ugula lugal-ku3-zu
kiszib3 gu-u2-gu-a
iti min-esz3
mu us2-sa szu-suen lugal-e bad3 mar#-tu mu-du3
gu-u2-gu-a
dub-sar
dumu ma-an-szum2

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 21, 092. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y2 — Year after: Šu-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P120329) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120329..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.