Position in chronology
MDP 17, 243
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008441.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] x , 2(N39B) M386 M263 , [...] [...] x M066 , [...] [...] M263~a# |M036+1(N30D)|# , [...] [...] , 1(N24)# 1(N30C)# M263 , 1(N01) 1(N24) M175 M136~c , 1(N39B) x x M380 |M218+M288| M263 , 1(N01) M248~a M259 M036 , 1(N24) 2(N30C@b) |M036+1(N30D)|#? , n 1(N39B) 1(N30C) [...] , 2(N39B) 1(N30C) 1(N30D) 1(N39B@b) [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 243. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008441) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008441..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.