Position in chronology
MDP 17, 453
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008651.
Why it matters
Transliteration
M327# , M009 , 3(N14) M309~d , 4(N01)# [...] [...] , 1(N01) 5(N08A) x , 1(N14) 1(N01) x , 1(N14) 3(N01) x , 1(N01)# [...] [...] , 8(N01) x , 8(N01) M452 , 2(N14) 1(N01)# [...] [...] , 2(N14) 4(N01) M123~d , 1(N48) 3(N34)# [...] x , 2(N01)# x , 2(N01)#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 453. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008651) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008651..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.