Position in chronology
Ontario 1, 007
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124420.
Transliteration
3(u) 7(disz) unu3 libir 2(disz) sila3 i3-nun-ta 2(disz) sila3 ga-ar3-ta szunigin 1(barig) 1(ban2) 4(disz) sila3 i3-nun szunigin 1(barig) 1(ban2) 4(disz) sila3 ga-ar3 masz2-da-re-a unu3-e-ne e2-kiszib3-ba-sze3 ba-an-kux(KWU147) iti sze-sag11-ku5 mu en nanna masz2-e i3-pa3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Ontario 1, 007. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (P124420) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124420..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.