Ontario 2, 256

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P209749

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209749.

Transliteration

1(gesz2) 1(disz) gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3
a-sza3 igi-e2-mah-ta
sze a-ta du8-a
u3 a-sza3 nin-ur4-ra ka-dingir
u4 4(disz)-kam
zar tab-ba szu-ur3-ra
ugula e2-gal-e-si
kiszib3 ur-e11-e
iti sig4-i3-szub-ba-gar
mu us2-sa en ga-esz ba-hun
ur-e11-e
dub-sar
dumu ur-nigar

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Ontario 2, 256. 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 (P209749) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209749..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.