Position in chronology
MVN 01, 074
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P113107.
Transliteration
1(asz) 1(barig) gu2-gal gur 1(asz) gu2-tur gur 1(barig) 4(ban2) 2(disz) sila3 sze-lu2 mun-gazi musz-bi-an-na ki lugal-ku3-zu-ta kiszib3 ensi2-ka mu amar#-suen lugal-e ur-bi2-lum mu-hul szul-gi nita kal-ga lugal uri5-ma lugal an-ub-da limmu2-ba ur-li9-si4# ensi2# umma ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 01, 074. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Amar-Suen y2 — Urbilum destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Museum Forum der Völker (Völkerkundemuseum der Franziskaner), Werl, Germany (P113107) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P113107..
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.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.