Ontario 1, 018

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P124431

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124431.

Transliteration

2(disz) sila4 ensi2 nibru
1(disz) amar masz-da3 szesz-da-da sanga
1(disz) sila4 te-te
1(disz) sila4 en inanna
1(disz) sila4 dingir-dan
2(disz) amar masz-da3
nir-i3-da-gal2
mu-kux(DU)
iti masz-da3-gu7
mu en nanna masz-e i3-pa3
u4 1(u) 3(disz)-kam

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Ontario 1, 018. 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 (P124431) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124431..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.