Position in chronology
MVN 18, 563
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P119924.
Transliteration
1(disz) ug3 lugal-he2-gal2 sag i3-bi2-za aga3-us2 ensi2-ka-sze3 iti sig4-i3-szub-ba-gar mu en ga-esz ba-hun-ta tukum-bi kiszib3 ensi2-ka# nu?-mu-de6 ugu2#-a ga2-ga2-dam ugula e2-gal-e-si kiszib3 ur-szara2 ur-szara2 dub-sar dumu szesz-kal-la
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 18, 563. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P119924) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P119924..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.