MVN 18, 647

~2080 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P120008

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120008.

Why it matters

Transliteration

4(u) 1(disz) udu niga#
2(u) la2 1(disz) masz2-gal# niga#
szu#-a#-gi-na
u4 3(u)-kam
[x] sila4# niga e2-u4 7(disz)
[...] niga# e2-u4 1(u) 5(disz)
[x] udu#? niga e2-u4-sakar#
[nig2]-diri
sa2#-du11# szul-gi
ki na-lu5-ta
ba-zi
sza3 uri5-ma
iti ezem-nin-a-zu
mu en# nanna# ba-hun
1(gesz2)

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 18, 647. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y15 — The en-priest of Nanna was installed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P120008) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120008..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.