Position in chronology
Ontario 2, 133
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209534.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(asz) sze gur kiszib3 lu2-du10-ga 3(barig) kiszib3 szara2-za-me 2(barig) kiszib3 ur-nigar sa2-du11 kas4 GAN2-ta de6-a ur-nun-gal ba-an-dab mu us2-sa szu-suen lugal bad3 mar-tu mu-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Ontario 2, 133. 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 (P209534) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209534..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.