Position in chronology
Ontario 2, 453
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209726.
Transliteration
5(disz) gurusz u4 3(disz)-sze3 sze-tir e2 lugal-[ta?] gesz a-ta du8-a ma2-a si-ga kar-ra-sze3 ma2 gid2-da u3 ma2 ba-al-la 5(disz) gurusz u4 5(disz)-sze3 kar-ra e2-dim2-du gub-ba ugula i7-pa-e3 kiszib3 lu2-kal-la mu us2-sa szu-suen lugal uri5-ma-ke4 bad3 mar-tu mu-du3 lu2-kal-la dub-sar dumu ur-e11-e szusz3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Ontario 2, 453. 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 (P209726) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209726..
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.
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.