Ontario 2, 181

~2057 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P332955

Translation — curated editorial

Editorial

Experimental

Editorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P332955.

Transliteration

1(gesz2) 1(u) la2 1(disz) gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3
ki-su7 a-sza3 nin-ur4-ra gub-ba
ugula lugal-ku3-zu
kiszib3 ur-szul-pa-e3
mu us2-sa bad3 mar-tu ba-du3
[ur-szul-pa-e3]
[dub-sar]
[dumu lugal-ku3-ga-ni]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Ontario 2, 181. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y38 — Year after: The Amorite wall was built based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (P332955) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P332955..

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The earliest historical document in human history.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.