MVN 20, 069

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P143002

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P143002.

Transliteration

1(disz) udu
ki an-na dumu-zi umma
1(disz) udu ki an-na dumu-zi |KI.AN|
1(disz) masz2 ki dumu-zi nin-sun2-ka
1(disz) udu 1(disz) masz2-gal
nig2-mu10-us2-sa2 dumu-zi-da
1(disz) udu nig2-dab5 en-en-e-ne
1(disz) masz2 ki-a-nag ensi2-ke4-ne
ki a-lu5-lu5-ta
zi-ga-am3
iti dumu-zi
mu en-unu6-gal

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 20, 069. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P143002) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P143002..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.