MVN 13, 830

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P117602

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P117602.

Transliteration

2(disz) masz2-nita2 gaba
2(disz) asz2-gar3
1(disz) masz2 ga
1(disz) sila4 ga szimaszgi
szunigin 6(disz) masz2 hi-a
udu ba-usz2 sza3 uri5-ma
ki na-lu5-ta ba-zi
szul-gi-iri-mu
szu ba-an-ti
giri3 szu-[...]
iti u5-bi2-[gu7]
mu ma2-dara3 ma2 en-ki-ka ba-ab-du8

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 13, 830. 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 (P117602) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P117602..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.