Ontario 2, 167

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P209492

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209492.

Transliteration

1(esze3) 1(iku) gan2 a-sza3 bala-a
ab-sin2 1(u)-ta
a-sza3 la2-tur
ugula lugal-ku3-zu
kiszib3 ur-ur3-bar-tab
mu si-ma-num2 ba-hul
ur-ur3-bar-tab
dumu lugal-a2-zi-da
gudu4 e2-mah

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Ontario 2, 167. 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 (P209492) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209492..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.