Position in chronology
MVN 11, 155
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116168.
Transliteration
2(disz) udu u2 2(disz) masz2-gal u2 nig2-mu10-us2-sa2 en-lil2-al-szu dumu nu-ur2-utu e2 sza-at-suen-sze3 nu-ur2-utu maszkim u4 1(disz)-kam ki ur-ku3-nun-na-ta ba-zi giri3 hu-la-al dub-sar iti ezem-szu-suen mu szu-suen lugal uri5-ma-ke4 ma-da za-ab-sza-li mu-hul 4(disz) udu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 11, 155. 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: Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (P116168) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116168..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.