Position in chronology
MVN 18, 758
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120119.
Transliteration
1(u) 2(disz) gurusz# [...] u4 1(disz)-[sze3] pa#-ku5 gi# [...] ga2#-nun x x [x x-sze3] [...] ga6#-ga2 [...] ugula# lugal-nig2-lagar-[e] a-sza3 en-du8#-[du] iti ezem-szul-[gi] mu ur-bi2#-[lum] ba-[hul] lugal#?-[...] dub-sar dumu lugal-a2-zi-da
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 18, 758. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P120119) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120119..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.