Position in chronology
MDP 06, 304
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008093.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] , 1(N14)# 2(N01)# x [...] , [...] [...] , 1(N14) M101~b , 2(N14) [...] x M230 M024# M033# , 1(N14) M146# x , [...] [...] , [...] 1(N14) 1(N01) [...] M254~a#? , [...] [...] , 1(N01)# [...] M387~a M110# , [...] [...] , 1(N01) [...] M153 M059~f# , [...] [...] M309#? M314# [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 304. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008093) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008093..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.