MVN 11, 149

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P116162

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116162.

Transliteration

2(disz) gu4#
2(disz) gu4# [gesz]-du3
1(disz) gu4 gun3-a
1(u) 5(disz) gukkal
1(u) 5(disz) masz2-gal
qi2-id-ma-nu-um mar-tu
1(disz) sila4 id-da-a
1(disz) sila4 lugal-a2-zi-da
1(disz) sila4 ur-tilla3
1(disz) sila4 ur-suen
2(disz) u8 niga szu-en-lil2
1(disz) sila4 en-lil2-la2 kuruszda
mu-kux(DU) iti ki-siki-nin-a-zu
mu us2-sa ur-bi2-lum ba-hul
u4 3(u)-kam

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 11, 149. 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 (P116162) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116162..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.