Position in chronology
MVN 18, 530
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P119891.
Transliteration
[x] u8 niga [n] 1(disz) udu niga saga [x] udu# niga us2 sza3 udu bala# [...] x ARAD2 [...] [x] u8 niga [...] [...] 2(disz) x [...] [...] x [...] [x] udu didli giri3 sipa# [...] [n] 1(disz) udu 3(disz) masz2 udu sipa-[ke4]-ne# [ki] kas4-ta [szunigin?] 1(gesz2) 1(u) 5(disz) [...] [e2?]-mah-sze3 a-lu5-lu5 i3-dab5
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 18, 530. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P119891) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P119891..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.