Position in chronology
MVN 21, 193
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120430.
Transliteration
3(disz) gurusz [ugula ]szara2-a-mu# 3(disz) <gurusz> ugula lugal-igi-husz 1(u) 2(disz) gurusz ugula lu2-giri17-zal 1(u) gurusz lu2 azlag2 7(disz) gurusz erin2-ta gur-ra 6(disz) gurusz bar-ra-kar-ra ugula-ne szunigin 4(u) 1(disz) gurusz ma2-la2-a ib2-tusz giri3 lu2-utu# iti [sze]-kar-[ra-gal2-la] [...] [mu ma]-da# za-ab-sza-li [ba]-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 21, 193. 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 (P120430) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120430..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.