MVN 11, 191

~2098 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P116204

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116204.

Why it matters

Transliteration

1(disz) ha-zi-in eme# [2(disz)] zabar ku3-babbar gar-ra#
lu2-bala-sa6-ga unu3 ab2-da-ak-si
1(disz) ha-zi-in eme 2(disz) zabar ku3-babbar gar-ra
lu2#-bi-mu unu3#
unu3# nanna#
in-be6-e-esz2#
ki di-ku5-mi-szar-ta#
ba-zi#
sza3 uri5-ma#
iti# masz-da3-ku3-gu7#
mu# us2-sa gu#-[za] en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2#
2(disz)

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 11, 191. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Ur-Nammu y15 — Year after: The throne of Enlil was fashioned based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (P116204) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116204..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.