Position in chronology
MVN 21, 052
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120289.
Transliteration
1/2(disz) gu-za-ni lunga szul-gi-ra-sze3 1(disz) lu2-igi-sa6-sa6 agar4-nigin2-sze3 iti dal 1(disz) lu2-szara2 sa-ra-du-sze3 iti e2-iti-6(disz) mu gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2-ta kiszib3 a-kal-la nu-banda3 ugula in-sa6-sa6 mu en-mah-gal-an-na nanna ba-hun-ga2-sze3 a-kal-la dub-sar dumu ur-nigar szusz3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 21, 052. 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: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P120289) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P120289..
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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.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.