Position in chronology
MVN 18, 640
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120001.
Transliteration
2(u) la2 1(disz) ab2-mah2 1(disz) ab2 mu 3(asz) 3(disz) ab2 mu 2(asz) 2(disz) ab2 mu 1(asz) [1(disz)] gu4 mu 3(asz) [3(disz) gu4] mu# [2(disz)] [ur-]gigir# unu3 gurum2 ak ab2 e2 tur3-ra e2-du6-la ur-li9-si4 ensi2-ka iti nesag mu ma2 en-ki ba-ab-du8
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 18, 640. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P120001) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120001..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.