Position in chronology
MDP 17, 246
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008444.
Why it matters
Transliteration
M157#? M054 x , 1(N14) M218# , 1(N01)# M096 , 2(N01) 1(N24) M218 , 1(N01) M066 M352~n# , [...] M218 , 1(N01) M058 M297 M066 , 1(N01) x M223~b M218 , 1(N01) M099 M371 , 1(N01) M352~n M301 M057~a , 1(N01) M057 M058 M057 , 2(N01) [...] , [...] M288# M242~d M097~h#? , 1(N01)#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 246. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008444) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008444..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.