MVN 21, 196

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P120433

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120433.

Transliteration

1(disz) szesz-a-ni
1(disz) [...] x
ugula [x]-kal#-la
1(disz) [...]
1(disz) [...]
ugula szara2#-kam#
1(disz) ur-gigir
1(disz) a-kal-la
1(disz) szesz-gi-na
1(disz) lugal-kisal
ugula ur-ur3-bar-tab
1(disz) USZ-a-mu
ugula a-a-gi-na
szunigin 1(u) la2 1(disz@t) gurusz
nu-banda3 ur-e2-mah

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 21, 196. 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 (P120433) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120433..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.