Position in chronology
MVN 18, 723
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120084.
Transliteration
1(u) la2 1(disz) gurusz u4 [x-sze3] 1(u) la2 1(disz) gurusz sza3-[gu4] u4 3(disz)-[sze3 ...] kun-zi#-[da ...] [...] [...]-ka# [...] ugula szesz-kal#-[la] kiszib3 lugal-e2-[mah-e] [iti pa4]-u2-e mu# [us2-sa amar-]suen [lugal-e ur]-bi2#-lum[] mu-[hul] lugal-e2-mah-e dub-sar dumu lugal-ku3-ga-ni
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 18, 723. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Amar-Suen y3 — Year after: Urbilum destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P120084) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120084..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.