Position in chronology
Ontario 2, 117
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209475.
Transliteration
6(asz) 1(barig) zi3 gur sa2-du11 szara2 ki-su7 e2-duru5-gu-la ki lu2-szul-gi-ra-ta mu ur-suen-sze3 kiszib3 ur-ma-mi iti 4(disz)-sze3 iti szu-numun-ta iti li9-si4-sze3 mu en eridu ba-hun ur-suen dumu lu2-szara2 nu-banda3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Ontario 2, 117. 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 (P209475) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209475..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.