Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 5218
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009318.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] , [...] M388 M146 M377~e M347 M371 M054 , 1(N01) M032# , [...] [...] , 1(N01) M054 , 1(N01) M373 , 2(N01) M046 , 1(N01) M288 , 1(N01)# M033 , 2(N14) M376 M124 , 2(N14) M072 , [...] M288# , 1(N45) 3(N14) 4(N39B) [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 5218. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009318) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009318..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.