MVN 18, 612

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P119973

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P119973.

Transliteration

[...] za3-hi-li
[...] ka3#-ma-am-tum#
[...] szum2#-sikil gur
[n x] sila3# numun szum2-sikil gur
[...] szum2#-sikil
[...] szum2#-ha-din
[n] 2(disz) 2/3(disz) sila3 6(disz) gin2 sag# szum2 gaz gur#
[n (x)] 2(disz) 1/2(disz) sila3 numun szum2 gaz# [gur?]
[(x)] 4(gesz2) 5(u) 9(disz) nigin2# [...]
szunigin# 1(u) 2(disz) [...] sila3# ... [gur]
szunigin 2(ban2) 4(disz) sila3# [numun?] al-[li2-gum2]
szunigin 1(asz) 4(ban2) 5(disz) sila3# [...] gur#
szunigin 1(ban2) 5(disz) sila3# [...]
szunigin# 2(u) [...]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 18, 612. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P119973) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P119973..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.