Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 0216
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009174.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] , M218 , [...] M296# , 9(N01) M024~1 M262 [...] , [...] [...] , 2(N01) |M153+M342| , 1(N14) |M305+X| , 2(N14) [...] , 6(N01)# M387 x M371# , 1(N01) [...] , 2(N01)# M386~a x M057~a2 , 1(N14) |M153+M342| , 5(N01) |M305+M342|#? , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 0216. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009174) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009174..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.