Position in chronology
MVN 18, 559
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P119920.
Transliteration
gug4# [...] tir ur-ab-[ba] kun i7 da-x-ta la2?-[a?] 8(disz) gurusz u4 7(disz)-sze3# kab2-ku5 e2-duru5-sikil#? gug4 ga6-[ga2] [...] sar kin sahar [...] 1(disz) gurusz u4 1(u) [x?-sze3] kab2-ku5 gi# [...] ugula da-du-[mu] [mu] en kar-[zi-da ba-hun] lugal-e2-mah#-[e] [dub]-sar [dumu] lugal-ku3-ga-[ni]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 18, 559. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P119920) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P119920..
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Related sources
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.
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.
The earliest historical document in human history.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.