Position in chronology
MDP 06, 272
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008065.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] M049~c#? M240~a#? M057~a# , 1(N01)# [...] [...] , [...] 4(N39B) 1(N24) M262~1 M096 , 2(N01) M032#? [...] , [...] [...] , [...] 1(N01) M386~a M131 M263 M218 , 1(N01) M260~1#? M218#? , 1(N39B)# [...] [...] M377~e M347 M371 , 1(N01) M151~e M057~a4 , 1(N01) M218 M295~da M218 , 1(N01) M089 M388 M251~c#? [...] , [...] [...] , [...] 1(N14) M259 M009 M371 , 3(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 272. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008065) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008065..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.