MVN 02, 028

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P113327

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P113327.

Transliteration

2(barig) i3-gesz
i3 ku3-ta sa10-a
ba-la2-a sukkal-mah-sze3
ki ur-e2-gal-ta
[ur-ab-ba] szu ba-ti#
[iti] sze-il2-la
mu ma-da za-ab-sza-li ba-hul
ur-ab-[ba]
dub-sar
dumu [ba-zi?]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 02, 028. 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 (P113327) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P113327..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.