Position in chronology
MDP 17, 157
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008355.
Why it matters
Transliteration
M387 M124 M009 M338~b M066~a M288 , 2(N39B) M124# [...] , [...] [...] M288# , 2(N39B) M066 M246~b M066 M288 , 1(N39B) M124# [...] , [...] [...] x M288 , 2(N39B) 2(N30C) M124 M371 M009# M371# x [...] , [...] [...] M288# , 1(N39B) 1(N24) M304 M001 M288 , 2(N30C) [...] M243~j#? , 1(N39B) 1(N24) M288 , 1(N30C) [...] , 3(N39B) 1(N24) 2(N30C)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 157. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008355) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008355..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.