MVN 18, 681

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P120042

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120042.

Transliteration

[...] x lu2-ba-ba6
5(u) 6(disz) geme2
4(disz) lu2 azlag2
nu-banda3 inim-ba-ba6-i3-dab5
1(gesz2) 3(u) 1(disz) geme2
7(disz) lu2 azlag2
nu-banda3 a-i3-li2-su
1(gesz2) 3(u) la2 1(disz) geme2
3(disz) lu2 azlag2#
nu-banda3 ur-hendur#-sag#
1(gesz2) 1(u) erin2 umma
5(u) la2 2(disz) erin2 gab2-ba
[...] 2(disz) erin2 i7 ba-asz
[...] ad#-kup4

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 18, 681. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P120042) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120042..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.