MVN 18, 500

~2059 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P119861

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P119861.

Why it matters

Transliteration

[(x)] 4(disz) gurusz u4 1(disz)-[sze3]
ugu2 a-ab-ba-ka# ba-a-gar
2(u) 4(disz) gurusz u4 4(disz)-sze3#
a-e3-<a> i7 sal4-la gub-ba-am3
giri3 ur-[szara2] sza13-dub-[ba-ka]
mu# us2-sa# [an-sza]-an [ba-hul]
ur-szara2
dub-sar
dumu lugal-uszur4#
nu-banda3-gu4 szara2

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 18, 500. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y36 — Year after: Anšan destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P119861) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P119861..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.