Position in chronology
MVN 11, 063
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116077.
Transliteration
3(bur3) GAN2 1(asz) 2(barig) 3(ban2) sze gur-ta 2(bur3) GAN2 1(asz) 4(barig) gur-ta sze-bi 8(asz) 3(ban2) gur a-sza3 dumu-lugal-pirig gu4 kab2-du11-ga-ke4 ur4-a ugula sanga ba-gara2? 2(u) 2(asz) 2(barig) 4(ban2) 1(disz) 1/3(disz) sila3 gur sze-numun-ta gur-ra nig2-ka9 mu us2-sa e2 puzur4-isz-da-gan ugu2 nig2-ba-ba6 dumu ba-ka ba-a-gar zi-ga mu us2-sa mu us2-sa-bi
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 11, 063. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (P116077) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116077..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.