MVN 13, 709

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P117482

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P117482.

Transliteration

1(asz) 2(barig) 3(ban2) sze# [lugal]
sza3-gal [kunga2?]
e2-kikken-ta
ki ARAD2-ta
lu2-nin-szubur
szu ba-ti
iti li9-si4
mu us2-sa si-mu-ru!-um lu-lu-bu a-ra2# 1(u) la2 1(disz)-kam-asz ba-hul
lu2-nin-szubur szusz3
ARAD2 szara2!

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 13, 709. 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 (P117482) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P117482..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.