Position in chronology
MDP 06, 252
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008047.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x] M157 , |M106~2+M288| , 1(N02)# M288 , 2(N34) 1(N45) 1(N14) [...] 5(N01) 2(N39B) 1(N24) |M106+X|# , 1(N08) M288 , 1(N34)? 9(N14) 1(N01) |M106~2+M288| , 1(N02) M288 , 1(N45) 4(N14) [...] , [...] 2(N34)# [...] 2(N01) 2(N39B) [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 252. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008047) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008047..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.