MVN 13, 518

~2042 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P117291

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P117291.

Transliteration

[1(disz) kunga2 x]
[lu2]-bala-sa6-ga i3-dab5
1(disz) kunga2-nita2
szu-zu i3-dab5
szunigin 2(disz) kunga2
mu-kux(DU) lugal
ki szara2-ta
i3-ku-pi-sze3
gaba-ri kiszib3-ba
iti ezem-an-na
mu en-mah-gal-an-na en nanna ba-hun

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 13, 518. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Amar-Suen y5 — En-maḫgalanna en-priest of Nanna installed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P117291) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P117291..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.