MVN 18, 603

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P119964

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P119964.

Transliteration

[...]-gu#-la dumu# x geme2 kar-ke3
1(disz) szu-gu-ub dumu x-dun geme2 kar-ke3#
1(disz) lu2-ba-ba6 dumu# [...]
1(disz) ur-suen dumu# x tur x [...]
im#-e tak4-[a-me]
he2-dab5 ki-sur-[ra-me]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 18, 603. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P119964) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P119964..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.