Position in chronology
MVN 13, 131
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116903.
Transliteration
1(ban2) 2(disz) sila3 bappir2 saga gazx(KUM) 3(disz) sila3 mun a uzu gu4 niga-sze3 1(gesz2) sa gi 4(u) 2(asz) gu2 gi-ru-usz e2-gu4-gaz 1(u) sa gi ku6 duru5 ba-ra-sze6 1(u) sa gi sza3-gar-du10 sila4-sze3 u4 2(u) 3(disz)-kam giri3 mu-ni iti szu-esz5-sza mu en eridu ba-hun
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 13, 131. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P116903) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116903..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.