MVN 18, 571

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P119932

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P119932.

Transliteration

[...]
ku3-bi 2/3(disz) gin2
3(disz) sila3 im-ku3-ge
ku3#-bi 1(u) sze
[x] 3(ban2) naga si-e3
ki lu2-kal-la-ta
kiszib3 a-a-kal-la aszgab
[mu ma2 ]en#-ki ba#-[ab-du8]
a-kal-la
dumu lu2-bulug3-ga2
aszgab-gal

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 18, 571. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P119932) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P119932..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.