Position in chronology
Ontario 2, 229
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209464.
Transliteration
1(gesz'u) 3(gesz2) 7(asz) sze gur 4(u) 1(asz) zi3 gur sze GAN2-gu4 nu-banda3-gu4 da-du-mu 1(u) 5(asz) 2(barig) sze gur sze szukur-ra sza3-gu4-ka szunigin 1(gesz'u) 3(gesz2) 2(asz) sze gur szunigin 4(u) 1(asz) zi3 gur sze gesz e3-a ki-su7 HI-a-bar-ra giri3 ur-esz3 u3 ur-dingir-ra dub-sar iti sze-kar-ra-gal2-la mu en-unu6-gal inanna ba-hun
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Ontario 2, 229. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Amar-Suen y4 — En-unugal of Inanna installed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (P209464) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209464..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.