Position in chronology
MDP 06, 391
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008171.
Why it matters
Transliteration
M327# , M157 M374~c M009 M388 M338# |M228+M320| M371 M149~a , 8(N01) M376 , 1(N34) 2(N01) |M157+X|? M388 M073~b? |M296+M296| M461~q [...] , 1(N14) M009# M149~a# , 1(N14) 6(N01) M376# , 2(N34) 4(N01) |M175+M175| , [...] M374~c M015 M149~a , 2(N14) 4(N01) M376 , 2(N34)# [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 391. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008171) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008171..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.