Position in chronology
MVN 03, 261
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P113821.
Why it matters
Transliteration
6(asz) 4(ban2) sze gur# guru7 nig2-erim2-nu-dib-ta sze-ba sza3-gu4 sza3-sahar-ra u3 giri3-se3-ga-ba-sze3 sza3 ma-da zu-bu i-di3-zu szu ba-an-ti iti a2-ki-ti mu i-bi2-suen# lugal-e bad3-gal mu-du3 i-di3-suen dub-sar ARAD2 nanna
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 03, 261. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Ibbi-Suen y1 — Ibbi-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P113821) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P113821..
Related tablets
Related sources
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.
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.
The earliest historical document in human history.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.