Position in chronology
MVN 18, 598
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P119959.
Transliteration
[...] [...]-x [...] sila3 [...] sila3 [...] sila3 [...]-da [...] 4(disz) sila3 [...] 1(disz) nig2-ar3-ra [...] 1(disz) udu 1(disz) masz2# 1/2(disz) sila3 i3-nun du10-ga 1/2(disz) sila3 i3-nun 5(disz) sila3 ga-szex(SIG7)-a 3(disz) sila3 zu2-lum [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 18, 598. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P119959) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P119959..
Related tablets
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.