Position in chronology
MDP 06, 291
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008083.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] M218 M297# , 1(N39B) M347#? [...] , [...] [...] M230~a M377~g# M218 M223~a , 1(N39B) M270~m M371~a#? [...] , [...] [...] , 1(N39B) [...] M217 M361~d M329 M223~a , 1(N39B) [...] [...] , 1(N39B)# M066# M352~o M096# M297 , 1(N39B) M217#? [...] , [...] M066# M297 , 1(N39B) M217~e M024 M223~a M066 M288 , [...] [...] M296# , 1(N39B) M024 M281~d M096# , 1(N39B)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 291. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008083) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008083..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.