Position in chronology
MDP 17, 210
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008408.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] , [...] M314# M338~b [...] , [...] [...] x , 1(N01) M370 M072 , 1(N01) x [...] , [...] x M242~ab#? , 1(N01) M461~q M371 , 1(N01)#? [...] , 1(N01) M124# M115~a M314 [...] , [...] [...] M371#? , 1(N01)# M175# [...] , [...] [...] M263 M218 , [...] [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 210. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008408) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008408..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.