MVN 13, 205

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P116977

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116977.

Transliteration

2(asz) 2(barig) sze gur lugal
sa2-du11 szara2
e2-szu-tum-ta
ki ARAD2-ta
szara2-a-zi
szu ba-ti
iti sze-kar-ra-gal2#-[la]
mu us2-sa si-mu-ru-um lu-lu-bu a-ra2 1(u) la2 1(disz)-kam ba-hul
szara2-zi
dumu ur-[...]
lu2 lunga

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 13, 205. 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 (P116977) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116977..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.