Position in chronology
MDP 06, 375
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008156.
Why it matters
Transliteration
M157 , M203~c M136~p#? M304 x M146~d M264~a , 1(N01) |M036+1(N30D)| , 1(N14) x M051~b M388 M146 M251~c# M218 M297 , 3(N39B) M111~b# M388 M347 M110 M250~ba# M387 M218 M297 , 3(N39B) M039~h M297 , 3(N39B)# M269~1 M260# , 1(N01) |M036+1(N14)| , 2(N01) M297 , 2(N01) 1(N39B) 1(N30C)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 375. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008156) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008156..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.