MVN 20, 002

~2060 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P142935

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P142935.

Why it matters

Transliteration

1(gesz2) ha-bu3-da
ki-la2-bi 2(u) 1(disz) ma-na 3(disz) gin2
3(gesz2) gur10
ki-la2-bi 1(u) 4(disz) ma-na la2 2(disz) gin2#
4(u) ha-zi-in
ki-la2-bi 2(u) 7(disz) 1/2(disz) ma-na 3(disz) gin2
kin dub2-ba KA USZ-ta gur-ra
ki da-da-ga-ta
ur-szara2-ke4 in-la2
iti li9-si4
mu an-sza-an ba-hul

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 20, 002. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y35 — Anšan destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P142935) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P142935..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.