Position in chronology
MDP 31, 033
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009373.
Why it matters
Transliteration
|M327+X| , M157 x M305~f M057~e M263~b1 , 2(N01) [...] M263~b1# , 2(N01) x M263 , 5(N01)# M387~a M263~b1 , 4(N01) [...] M263~a , 1(N01) M004 |M218+M288~f| M066 M263~b1# , 1(N01) M024 M004 M218 M263~b1# M038~a1 M263~a , 2(N01) M243~eg , 4(N39B) 1(N24) 1(N30C) 1(N34)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 31, 033. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009373) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009373..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.