MVN 02, 017

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P113316

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P113316.

Transliteration

2(asz) 4(barig) sze gur lugal
sza3-gal ma-ad-da-ga-sze3
ki na#-ba-sa6-ta
ur-ki-sal4-la
szu ba-ti
iti sze-sag11-ku5
mu ki-masz ba-hul
2(asz) 4(barig) sze gur lugal
sza3-gal erin2 ma-<ad>-ga-sze3
ki na-ba-sa6-ta
kiszib3 ur-ki-sal4
iti# sze-sag11-ku5
mu ki-masz ba-hul#
ur-ki#-[sal4-la]
[dumu lugal-pa-e3]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 02, 017. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva, Switzerland (P113316) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P113316..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.