Ontario 1, 134

~2036 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P124547

Translation · reference

Experimental

Source: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124547.

Why it matters

Transliteration

mu-kux(DU)
nu-ub-tuku
giri3 nanna-ma-ba dub-sar
u4 1(u) 8(disz)-kam
iti u5-bi2-gu7
mu us2-sa szu-suen lugal bad3 mar-tu mu-ri-iq-ti-id-ni-im mu-du3

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Ontario 1, 134. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y2 — Year after: Šu-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (P124547) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124547..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.