Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 4756
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009194.
Why it matters
Transliteration
M157~a , M041~d#? M319 M124 x |M218+M288| M066 |M029~l+1(N08A)| , [...] x M386~a M242~b#? M066 , 1(N39B) M259 M260~1 M096 , 1(N39B) M124#? M371 [...] , [...] x , 1(N39B) x M230#? [...] , 1(N39B) x x , 1(N39B) |M029~l+1(N08A)| M297 , 1(N01) 4(N39B) |M305+M342|#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 4756. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009194) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009194..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.