Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 0259
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009178.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] , 2(N14)# 1(N39B) M304# M002 , 2(N14) x , [...] x , 2(N01)# M049~m# M372 M010# , 2(N01) M230 M009 M314 M377~e M218 , 2(N01) [...] x M057 |M305+M136| M056~f M288 , 2(N14) M057# x , 3(N14) x , [...] [...] x |M218+M101|# M371 , 1(N14) 3(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 0259. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009178) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009178..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.