Position in chronology
MDP 06, 354
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008136.
Why it matters
Transliteration
M157 , M388 M096 x M009 M259~1 M218# M288 , 1(N14) M352~n M066# , 1(N14)#? M048~i M218 M219 , 1(N14) M219 M387 M218 , 3(N14) M057~a M240 M386~a M240 , 3(N14) M080~a M066 , 3(N14) M218 M295~c#? M218 , 2(N14) M097~f? M218~b#? M250~ba M263 , 2(N14) M288#? , 1(N45)# 6(N14)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 354. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008136) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008136..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.