Position in chronology
Ontario 2, 044
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209714.
Transliteration
2(barig) sze sumun lugal e2 us2-sa e2-im-sar-bi 1(barig) 4(ban2) 5(disz) sila3 sze lugal igi e2-mah-sze3-ta sza3-gal kunga2 ki ARAD2-ta [lu2]-nin-szubur szu# ba#-ti iti min-esz3 mu us2-sa ki-masz ba-hul lu2#-nin#-szubur# szusz3# ARAD2 szara2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Ontario 2, 044. 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 (P209714) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209714..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.