MVN 13, 469

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P117242

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P117242.

Transliteration

2(disz) udu a-lum niga
u4 6(disz)-kam
1(disz) udu a-lum niga u4 1(u) 1(disz)-kam
4(disz) udu a-lum
1(disz) u8 gukkal
u4 1(u) 2(disz)-kam
7(disz) masz2-gal u4 1(u) 7(disz)-kam
3(disz) gukkal u4 2(u) 2(disz)-kam
1(disz) udu a-lum u4 2(u) 4(disz)-kam
1(disz) gu4 niga u4 2(u) 8(disz)-kam
ki ab-ba-sa6-ga-ta
u2-ta2-mi-szar-ra-am i3-dab5
iti ezem-me-ki-gal2
mu en eridu ba-hun
1(disz) gu4 2(u) la2 1(disz) udu

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 13, 469. 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 (P117242) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P117242..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.