MVN 20, 132

~2064 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P143065

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P143065.

Why it matters

Transliteration

1(barig) nig2-ar3-ra# [...] x
1(barig) 3(ban2)# sze [(x)]
3(ban2) zi3 esza#
1(disz) sila3 ar-za-na#
1(u) 3(disz) |U.EN|
1(disz) sila3 i3-szah2
1(u) [...] 3(barig) sze ma-sa2#-ab 3(ban2)-ta#
ki du-ti-ri2-ta
lugal-e2-mah-e
szu ba-ti
iti u5-bi2-gu7
mu us2-sa bad3 ma-da ba-du3
lugal-[e2-mah-e]
sagi

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 20, 132. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y31 — Year after: The frontier wall was built based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P143065) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P143065..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.