Position in chronology
MVN 11, 126
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116140.
Transliteration
4(gesz'u) 5(u) u3-suh5 mi-ri2-za ma2 gur 1(gesz2) 1(gesz'u) 6(gesz2) u3-suh5 mi-ri2-za ma2 gur 3(u) kiri6 nin-gir2-su2-ta esz-am3 szu ba-ti giri3 ka-tar-ba-ba6 iti munu4-gu7 mu us2-sa ki-masz ba-hul mu us2-sa-a-bi
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 11, 126. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (P116140) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116140..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.