Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 4788
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009225.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] , 4(N14) x M288 , 1(N14) 2(N01)# [...] M066# M288 , 1(N14) 3(N01) M387~a M111~i M242~b [...] , [...] [...] M066 M352~o M218 M259# M218 M288 , 1(N14) M038~h [...] , [...] [...] M288 , 3(N01) M047 x M288 , 3(N01)# 1(N39B)# M288 , 1(N45) 3(N14) 4(N01)#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 4788. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009225) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009225..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.