Position in chronology
MVN 18, 672
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120033.
Transliteration
1(u) 5(disz) ma-an-sim us2 [x] 6(disz) su7-su7 [x] ma-an-sim dabin [x] ma-an-sim nig2-ar3-ra [...] [x] gur# [...] [x ]su7-su7# ki a-gu-ta kiszib3 ur-nu-musz-da bala ensi2 gir2-su iti li9-si4 mu e2 szara2 ba-du3 ARAD2-mu dub-sar dumu [szara2-za-me]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 18, 672. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P120033) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120033..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.