Position in chronology
MVN 18, 762
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120123.
Transliteration
[x] 5(u) 8(disz) [gurusz ...] kun-zi-da [...] ki bu3-du#-[...-ta] 5(disz) sar kin# [sahar ...] a2-bi u4 [...] kab2#-ku5 i7#? [...] [...] gurusz# [...] [...]-ra? [ugula] ur-e2-mah# kiszib3# a-kal-la# mu en-[unu6-gal] inanna [ba-hun] a-kal-la dub-sar dumu# lugal#?-[...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 18, 762. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Amar-Suen y4 — En-unugal of Inanna installed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P120123) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120123..
Related tablets
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.