Position in chronology
MVN 20, 128
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P143061.
Transliteration
x sila3 kasz 2(disz) sila3 ninda# 1(disz) id-gur2 i3 sza3-iri 1(disz) dug dida 5(disz) sila3 ninda# kaskal-sze3 nu#-ur2?-suen lu2 tukul x sila3 kasz 2(disz) sila3 ninda [x] id-gur2 i3 sza3-iri 1(disz) dug dida 5(disz) sila3 ninda kaskal-sze3 an-ga-za-a-ni lu2 tukul sa#-bu-um-sze3 du-ne-ne iti diri sze-sag11-ku5
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 20, 128. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P143061) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P143061..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.