Position in chronology
MDP 17, 335
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008533.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] , [...] 1(N39B)# M379 , 1(N24) M050~k#? , [...] |M175+M136|# M266~b M263 , 2(N01) M124 M377 [...] , [...] [...] , 1(N30C) M124 M024 M242~b#? M096 M288 , [...] x x , 2(N39B) [...] M288#? , n(N01)#?
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 335. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008533) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008533..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.