Position in chronology
MDP 17, 436
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008634.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] M388# M122 M242~ab M096 M388 M218 M044~c [...] , [...] [...] M388 M099 x x x M036#? x , 1(N01) [...] M057~b M218 M386~a M259#? M102~k#? M371 , 1(N01) M295#? M223 M377~e# [...] , [...] [...] x |M131+M388| , 1(N01) M001 M218 , 1(N01) M032 M371 , 1(N01) M377~e x [...] , [...] [...] x M218 , 1(N01) M122 M242~ab M387 x x , 2(N01) x , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 436. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008634) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P008634..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.