Position in chronology
MVN 09, 186
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P115829.
Transliteration
1(gesz'u) 3(u) 8(disz) [...] asal2 e2#-gu4-gaz-sze3 [ki] ur-e2-masz-ta kiszib3#? lu2-nam2-nun-ka giri3# i3-kal-la sza3 bala-a mu en nanna kar-zi-da x-[x] lu2-nam2-an-[ka] dub-sar# dumu lu2-szara2 sa12-du5-ka
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 09, 186. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA (P115829) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P115829..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.