Position in chronology
MDP 06, 217
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008016.
Why it matters
Transliteration
|M218+M218| , M056~f M288 , 1(N14) 3(N01) |M054+M384~i+M054~i| M365 , 5(N01) M111~e , 4(N14) 1(N01) 3(N39B) M365 , 1(N14) 3(N01) M075~g , 1(N14) 3(N01) M387~l M348 , 1(N14) 3(N01) M056~f M288 , 1(N45) 1(N14)# 3(N39B)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 217. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008016) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008016..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.