Position in chronology
MVN 20, 107
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P143040.
Transliteration
1(asz@c) a-ha-ti 1(asz@c) e-s,i-ip-tum 1(asz@c) ama-zi-mu 1(asz@c) er2 ugula-gesz2-da mu-kux(DU) szara2 ki na-u2-a-ta da-da-ga i3-dab5 mu si#-mu#-ru-um# lu-lu-bum2 a-ra2# 1(u) la2 1(disz@t)-kam-asz ba-hul lu2-du10-ga dub-sar dumu ur-nigar#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 20, 107. 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 (P143040) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P143040..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.