Position in chronology
MVN 02, 113
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P113412.
Transliteration
1(disz) gu4 szu-gi4 ba-usz2 1(disz) udu ba-usz2 e2-udu ga2-nun gesz-ta 1(disz) udu szu-gid2 ba-usz2 a-sza3-ta zi#-ga ki# lugal#-nam2-mah-ta iti ezem-szul-gi u4 1(u) 2(disz) ba-zal mu szu-suen lugal
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 02, 113. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y1 — Šu-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva, Switzerland (P113412) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P113412..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.