MVN 13, 222

~2079 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P116994

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116994.

Why it matters

Transliteration

[...] 2(barig) sze gur lugal
sze zi-ga
szakkan2-a-e-bar-ka-x
4(asz) 1(barig) 4(ban2) 5(disz) sila3 sze gur
[la2-ia3] su-ga
lu2-iti-da
lu2 lunga
4(asz) 1(barig) ki ba-sa6-ta
dumu lugal-sa6-ga
1(barig) 2(ban2) 5(disz) <sila3> lugal-dalla
lu2-du10-ga szu ba-ti
iti <mu>-szu-du7
mu us2-sa en nanna ba-hun-ga2

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 13, 222. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y16 — Year after: The en-priest of Nanna was installed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P116994) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116994..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.