Position in chronology
MVN 02, 109
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P113408.
Transliteration
1(disz) ab2 apin e2 szul-gi-ka ba-an-si ki ur-e2-gal-ta ur#-ba-ba6 szabra i3-dab5 mu na-mah en-lil2-la2 ba-du3 1(disz) ab2 ki ur-e2-gal-ta apin <e>2 szul-gi ba-si kiszib3 ur-ba-ba6 szabra mu []szu-suen lugal-e na-ru2-a-mah en-lil2 nin!-lil2-ra mu-ne-du3 ur-ba-ba6# dub-sar# dumu ug3-[IL2]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 02, 109. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y1 — Šu-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva, Switzerland (P113408) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P113408..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.