MVN 11, 133

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P143165

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P143165.

Transliteration

1(gesz2) 5(disz) udu hi-a
ki nig2-u2-rum
dumu ki-tusz-lu2-ta
1(gesz2) 5(disz) udu hi-a
ki lu2-nin-szubur
dumu a-tu-ta
udu sze-ta sa10-a
engar nu-banda3-gu4 e2 nansze-ka
da-da dumu NE-ni-ga i3-dab5
kiszib3 lu2-igi-ma-sze3
mu sza-asz-ru-um ba-hul

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 11, 133. 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 (P143165) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P143165..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.