Position in chronology
MDP 06, 285
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008077.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] , [...] 1(N01)# 1(N24) x M097~h M218~b M250~ba#? [...] , [...] [...] M288#? , 2(N39B) 1(N24) x M242~b# M003~b , 1(N01) [...] [...] M288 , 1(N01) M219# M295~b#? M220 M054 , 1(N01)# [...] M370 M124 , 1(N01) M203~a M124 , 1(N01)# [...] , [...] 1(N01) M288 , 1(N01) M124#? M009#? [...] , [...] [...] , 1(N24) M218# [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 285. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008077) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008077..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.