MVN 13, 862

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P117634

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P117634.

Transliteration

[la2]-ia3# 3(u)# sze gur lugal
[kiszib3? lugal-iri-x]
[...] sze? gur? ma2#? [...]
[...] 2(asz) gur ma2 [...]
guru7#-a si-ga
2(u) sze gur ma2 gu-za
a-da-ga-an
szu ba-ti
bar-ta zi-ga
giri3 a-kal-la
sze zi-ga ka-ma-ri2-ta
[iti] nesag
mu nanna [kar]-zi#-<da>-ke4 e2# ba-an-kux(KWU147)

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 13, 862. 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 (P117634) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P117634..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.