Position in chronology
Ontario 2, 420
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209788.
Transliteration
8(disz) 1/2(disz) gin2 ku3-babbar masz2 5(disz) gin2 1(disz) gin2-ta ki ka-ku3-ga-ta ur-en-lil2-la2-ke4 szu ba-ti iti diri!(SI) sze-sag11-ku5 1(disz)? nam-ha-ni 1(disz)? ur-ru-ma 1(disz)? ga-ga 1(disz)? na-[...]-u4-a lu2-inim-ma-bi-me mu en nanna kar-zi-da ba-hun
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Ontario 2, 420. 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 (P209788) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209788..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.