Position in chronology
MVN 02, 219
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P113518.
Transliteration
[x] sila3# kasz 2(disz) sila3 ninda 1(disz) id-gur2 i3 sza3-iri 1(disz) kasz dida 5(disz) sila3 zi3 kaskal-[sze3] a-ama-la-lum lu2 gigir 3(ban2) kasz <<kasz>> 3(ban2) <<sila3>> zi3 <<sze3>> 1(disz) sila3 i3-gesz elam an-sza-an-na-me giri3 a-ama-la-lum u3-na-du11 sukkal-mah iti ezem-szul-gi
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 02, 219. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva, Switzerland (P113518) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P113518..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.