Position in chronology
Ontario 2, 433
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209754.
Transliteration
diri 1(disz) 1/3(disz) sila3 4(disz) gin2# [...] ugula-gesz2 ur-nin-su diri 1(u) 5(disz) gin2 ugula-gesz2 a-ab-ba diri 1/2(disz) gin2 ugula-gesz2 me-en-kar2 ka kab2-du11#-ga# ur-nin#-su# szabra# mu a-ra2 3(disz)#-kam si-mu-ru-um# ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Ontario 2, 433. 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 (P209754) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209754..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.