Position in chronology
Ontario 1, 030
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124443.
Why it matters
Transliteration
1(disz) sila4 en-lil2 1(disz) sila4 nin-lil2 mu-kux(DU) szesz-da-da sanga zabar-dab5 maszkim 4(disz) ab2 1(disz) ab2 mu 2(disz) 1(u) 4(disz) udu 2(disz) u8 3(disz) sila4 1(u) masz2 szu-gid2 e2-muhaldim-sze3 zi-ga u4 2(u) 4(disz)-kam iti ezem-mah mu szul-gi lugal-e ur-bi2-lum lu-lu-bu si-mu-ru-um u3 kar2-har asz-sze3 sagdu-bi szu-bur2-ra u4 1(disz)-kam bi2-ra-a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Ontario 1, 030. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y1 — Šulgi became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (P124443) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P124443..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.