Position in chronology
MDP 06, 317
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008106.
Why it matters
Transliteration
M157 , M005~a M257~d M348 M346 , 9(N14) 8(N01) M263~1 M295~da x , 5(N14) 1(N01) |M218+M320|# x M001 , 9(N14) M009#? [...] , [3(N14) 4(N01)] M136~a#? M005~a , 2(N14) M346 , 2(N23) 9(N14) 3(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 317. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008106) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008106..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.