Position in chronology
MVN 11, 202
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116215.
Transliteration
1(disz) suhub2 tug2 du8-a gu-dim4-<ba> aktum2 e2-ba-an a-tu5-a e2 u4 5(disz)-kam ki e2-a-i3-li2-ta ba-zi sza3 puzur4-isz-da-gan iti szah2-ku3-gu7 mu si-mu-ru-um lu-lu-bu a-ra2 1(u) la2 1(disz)-kam-asz ba-hul mu us2-sa-bi 1(disz)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 11, 202. 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 (P116215) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116215..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.