Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 4762
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009200.
Why it matters
Transliteration
M157 , [...] M054#? , 3(N01)# M001 , 1(N01) x , 1(N39B) M354 , 1(N14) M340 M054# , [...] [...] , 2(N01) M354 , 2(N01) M387~l M001 , 1(N01) x [...] , [...] M297~b , 1(N39B) M354 , [...] M387 x M354 , 2(N01) M341# , [...] 1(N34)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 4762. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009200) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009200..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.