Position in chronology
MDP 06, 382
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008163.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] M218~b# M066# M271~ca# , 1(N01)# M263~e [...] , [...] [...] M035#? M066 M271~ca , 1(N01) M048~d M051~b M271~ca# , [...] [...] |M036+1(N30C)| , 6(N01) M379 , 1(N39B) M305 M388 M240 M097~h M004# [M218 x] , [...] [...] M317 M271~ca# , 1(N01) x , 1(N01) M271~ca# , 1(N01) |M036+1(N14)|# , [...] [...] , 5(N01)#? M305# M388 [...] , [...] M059 M501 M264~a , 1(N01) |M036+1(N30D)|# , 1(N14)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 382. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008163) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008163..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.