MVN 13, 121

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P116893

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116893.

Transliteration

1(disz) sila4 utu
mu-kux(DU) ur-tilla5
2(disz) sila4 u18-[x]-x
mu-kux(DU) ur-suen dumu#! lugal
nansze-GIR2@g-gal maszkim
1(disz) udu niga e2-uz-ga
mu-kux(DU) s,e-lu-usz-da-gan
a-a-kal-la maszkim
1(disz) gu4 1(disz) ab2
1(u) 1(disz) u8 1(u) la2 1(disz) udu
1(u) la2 1(disz) masz2 szu-gid2
zi-ga u4 1(u) 5(disz)-kam
iti ezem-an-na
mu si-mu-ru-um u3 lu-lu-bu a-ra2 1(u) la2 1(disz)-kam-asz ba-hul

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 13, 121. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P116893) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116893..

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

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.

~3500 BCE

Kish Tablet

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.

~2450 BCE

Stele of the Vultures

The earliest historical document in human history.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.