MVN 18, 498

~2059 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P119859

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P119859.

Transliteration

[x] 1(gesz2) dug [...]
1(gesz2) 1(u)? dug kaskal 2(disz) [sila3-ta]
3(u) dug kaskal 2(disz) sila3#-[ta]
3(u) dug dal
ki lugal-ezem-[ta]
[dingir]-ra
szu ba-ti
[mu] us2-sa an-sza#-[an ba]-hul
dingir-ra-[kam]
dub-sar
dumu lu2-ga

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 18, 498. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y36 — Year after: Anšan destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Montserrat Museum, Barcelona, Spain (P119859) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P119859..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.