Position in chronology
Ontario 2, 328
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209725.
Transliteration
4(gesz2) 3(barig) la2 1(disz) sila3 dabin gur 2(u) 2(asz) 2(barig) 2(ban2) 2(disz) 1/3(disz) zi3 sig15 gur sza3-bi-ta 4(gesz2) 1(asz) 2(barig) 7(disz) 2/3(disz) sila3 dabin gur 2(u) 4(asz) 3(ban2) 5(disz) sila3 zi3 sig15 gur szunigin 4(gesz2) 3(ban2) la2 1(disz) sila3 dabin gur szunigin 2(u) 2(asz) 2(barig) 2(ban2) 2(disz) 1/3(disz) sila3 zi3 sig15 gur zi-ga-am3 diri 4(barig) 3(ban2) 9(disz) 2/3(disz) sila3 dabin gur diri 1(asz) 3(barig) 1(ban2) 2(disz) 2/3(disz) sila3 zi3 sig15 gur nig2-ka9-ak ur-zu iti dal mu us2-sa ki-masz ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Ontario 2, 328. 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 (P209725) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P209725..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.