Position in chronology
MDP 06, 357
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008139.
Why it matters
Transliteration
M157 , |M195+M057| |M305+X|? M264~a , 2(N01) M263 , 3(N01) M387 M376#? , 2(N01) M263# , 1(N01) M002 , 2(N30C) M305 M388 M066 M259 M218 M263~e , 1(N01)# M136~c# x M388 M152 M057~a2 M260 , 1(N01) M036#? , 2(N01) M260#? , 1(N01)#? 2(N39B)#? 1(N34)#?
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 357. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008139) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008139..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.