Position in chronology
MVN 21, 078
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120315.
Transliteration
1(u) 2(disz) 1/2(disz) gurusz u4 2(disz)-sze3 sahar-u2-u2-ta i7 lugal-sze3 sze ga6-ga2 sze ma2-a si-ga ugula a-kal-la kiszib3 lu2-nam2-an-ka iti diri mu si-ma-num2 ba-hul lu2-nam2-an-ka dub-sar dumu lu2-szara2 sa12-du5-ka
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 21, 078. 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 (P120315) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120315..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.