Ontario 2, 482

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P209845

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209845.

Transliteration

[...]-gi u3 gi#
gar-ra-na ki a-ga?-la-ta tum3
nig2-ka9-ak sipa umma
a-tu ru-na-ne
ki da-da-ga-ta tum3-dam
sipa kiszib3 du-gar-ra-sze3 zi-ga tum3-dam
sipa ki ta tum3-dam
la2-ia3 sipa-de3?-ne
i3-li2-mu in-[...]-sar
kiszib3-ta sar du8#
da-da-ga u3 na-du
di-di-dam
en3-bi tar-re-dam

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Ontario 2, 482. 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 (P209845) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209845..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.