MVN 03, 290

~2037 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P113850

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P113850.

Transliteration

1(u) 9(disz) gin2 1(u) 6(disz) 1/2(disz) sze ku3-sig17
nig2-sa10-ma-sze3
mu-kux(DU)
ki dingir-ba-ni-ta
lu2-nanna
szu ba-ti
nig2-ka9 dub2-ba-am3
gaba-ri kiszib3-ba
iti ezem-szu-suen
mu szu-suen lugal uri5-ma-ke4 ma2-gur8-mah en-lil2 nin-lil2-ra mu-ne-dim2

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 03, 290. 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: Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P113850) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P113850..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.