Position in chronology
MDP 17, 018
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008216.
Why it matters
Transliteration
|M377+M320+M377| , M328~c M388 M297 M218 M056~f# M288 , 4(N01) M009 M102~k# M096~3# , 1(N14) M377 M032 M048~d M096~3# , 1(N14) M004 M102~k M096 , 1(N14) M122# M242~b M096~3# M388 M057~b M387 M218 , 1(N14) M387#? M099 M218 M338~m M066# M388 M387# M250~ba M387#? M128#? M320#? M096#? , 1(N14) M056~f M288 , 5(N14) 4(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 018. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008216) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008216..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.