Position in chronology
MVN 11, 160
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116173.
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(disz) udu niga na-ap-la-nu-um mar-tu 1(disz) udu niga ra-szi lu2 zi-da-nu-um giri3 lugal-inim-gi-na sukkal ARAD2-mu maszkim iti u4 1(u) 6(disz) ba-zal ki lu2-dingir-ra-ta ba-zi iti ses-da-gu7 mu gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2 3(disz)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 11, 160. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Ur-Nammu y14 — 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 (P116173) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P116173..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.