Position in chronology
MVN 18, 665
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120026.
Transliteration
[x] gurusz# u4 [x-sze3] [zar3] tab#-ba szu ur3-[ra] 9(gesz2) 1(u) 5(disz) gurusz [u4 x-sze3] ki-su7 e2-duru5-[...] gub#-[ba] u3 a-kun-kum2# [...] a-sza3 ka-ma-ri2#[] [ugula] ur-gigir nu-banda3#-[gu4] [kiszib3] szesz-kal-[la] lugal-nig2-lagar-e dub-[sar] dumu da-da
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 18, 665. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P120026) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120026..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.