MVN 21, 003

~2060 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P120240

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120240.

Why it matters

Transliteration

5(disz) gurusz u4 1(u) 7(disz)-sze3
kar-sze3 zi3 ga6-ga2
u3 nibru-sze3
ma2 <zi3>-da gid2-da
kiszib3 ARAD2-mu gu-za-la2-a
iti szu-numun
mu an-sza-an ba-hul
ARAD2-mu
gu-za-la2
[dumu] ur-sukkal

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 21, 003. 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 (P120240) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120240..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.