Position in chronology
MVN 21, 295
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120532.
Transliteration
4(u) 6(asz) 1(barig) 5(ban2) sze gur lugal 4(asz) 4(barig) 3(ban2) ziz2 gur 1(barig) 2(ban2) dabin 2(ban2) zi3 sig15 2(ban2) esza mu us2-sa bad3 ba-du3 1(u) 3(barig) gur mu e2 puzur4-da-gan ba-du3 sa2-du11 ensi2 ki ARAD2-ta ur-nigar szu ba-ti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 21, 295. 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 (P120532) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120532..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.