Position in chronology
MDP 17, 297 + 299
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008495.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] M386~a M024 M371# , 1(N01)# M329#? [...] , [...] [...] M371# , 1(N01) M125~a M124#? M259 M229~e1 , 1(N01)# M035 M066 , 1(N01) M029~e#? M124#? , 1(N01) M218 M242~ab , 1(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 297 + 299. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008495) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008495..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.