Ontario 2, 321

~2058 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P209438

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209438.

Transliteration

2(disz) sila3 sze igi-[...]
sila3 ur-dun
6(disz) sila3 bi2-da
6(disz) sila3 ur-esz3-lil2-la2
4(disz) sila4 szara2-u3-[numun]
[sze] numun ninda-sze3 guru7 tak4-a
ki in-sa6-sa6-ta
kiszib3 lu2-szara2 sza3 kar-ra-ka
ugula lu2-giri17-zal
iti ezem-szul-gi
mu bad3 mar-tu ba-du3
lu2-szara2
dub-sar
dumu [...]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Ontario 2, 321. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y37 — The Amorite wall was built based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (P209438) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209438..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.