Position in chronology
MDP 06, 373
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008154.
Why it matters
Transliteration
M328~b M388 M032 M297 M032 , 1(N14) [...] [...] M005# , 5(N01) M376 , 3(N14) M149~a [...] , [...] [...] M032 , 1(N14) 3(N01) M005 , 1(N14) M321~h# , [...] [...] M376# , 2(N14) M149~a , 1(N14) 2(N01) M068~c |M296+M296| M066 , [...] [...] M203~a , 1(N14)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 373. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008154) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008154..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.