Position in chronology
MVN 18, 639
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120000.
Transliteration
[n?] 8(disz) gurusz u4 4(disz)?-[sze3] umma-[ta e2-te]-na-sze3 ma2 ninda [gid2-da] u4 3(u)-sze3 bala# [ak] u4 5(disz)-sze3 e2#-[te-na]-ta# uri5-sze3 ma2 ninda giri3# da-di-a x in-gid2-da uri5-ta umma-sze3 ma2 gur-ra [kiszib3] lu2#-kal#-la# lu2-kal-la dub-sar dumu ur-e11-e szusz3#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 18, 639. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P120000) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120000..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.