MVN 13, 185

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P116957

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116957.

Transliteration

6(asz) sze gur lugal#
ki ur-szara2-ta
1(asz) 1(barig) ki ur-gigir-ta
mu ur-gigir szabra-sze3
4(asz) 4(barig) gur ki gu2-tar-ta
6(asz) 1(barig) gur ki gu3-de2-a-ta
szunigin 1(u) 8(asz) 1(barig) sze gur lugal
sze ur5-ra mu-kux(DU)
ka2 a-gu-la-ta
iti szu-numun
mu us2-[sa ki-masz] ba-hul

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 13, 185. 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 (P116957) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116957..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.