Position in chronology
MDP 17, 281
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008479.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] x , M001 M259 M218# M278~e , 1(N01) M195~m M220 M218 x [...] , 1(N01) M152 M097~h# M387 M387 M377 M295# M096#? M066 , 1(N01) |M296+M296|# M263~1 x M096 [...] , 1(N01) M066~a M057 , 1(N01) M263~1#? x [...] M066~a , 1(N01) [...] , 6(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 281. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008479) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008479..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.