Ontario 2, 149

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P209613

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209613.

Transliteration

1(u) 7(disz) gurusz u4 6(disz)-sze3
e sa-dur2-a a-sza3 ma-nu
a-da ba a-e3-da gub-ba
9(disz) gurusz u4 3(disz)-sze3
su7 ma2 bil2-la-ka
u2 ninni5 bu3-ga
ugula lu2-bala-saga
kiszib3 da-da-ga
giri3 lu2-du10-ga dumu lugal-nesag-e
mu dumu-zi
mu en ga-esz? ba-hun
da-da-ga
dub-sar
dumu ur-nigar szusz3

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Ontario 2, 149. 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 (P209613) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209613..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.