MVN 21, 244

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P120481

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120481.

Transliteration

1(barig) sze-ba lugal
ur-gilgamesx(|BIL3.GA.MES|) bahar3
1(barig) dumu ur-gilgamesx(|BIL3.GA.MES|) bahar3!(U-DUG-SILA3-BUR)
1(barig) du11-ga-ni tir
1(barig) lugal-uszurx(|LAL2.TUG2|)? x
2(barig) szara2-ba-zi-ge x ad-kup4
usz2 3(ban2) amar-suen-ug3-e-ba-sa6
ki ur-suen nar#
x?

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 21, 244. 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 (P120481) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120481..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.