MVN 20, 094

~2043 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P143027

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P143027.

Transliteration

1(u) la2 1(disz) gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3
kun# i7 ma2-gur8#-ka gub-ba
8(disz) gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3
i7 asznan?
kun-zi#-da gub-ba
ugula ba-sa6
[...]
kiszib3 lugal-e2-mah-e
iti pa4-u2-e
mu en-unu6-gal inanna ba-hun
lugal#-e2#-mah#-[e]
dub-sar
dumu lugal-ku3-ga-ni

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 20, 094. 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: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P143027) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P143027..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.