Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 0249
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009177.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] , [...] M110 M250~ba M218 , 3(N39B) [...] M218# , 2(N39B) M068~c |M296+M296| M066 [...] , [...] [...] , [...] 1(N39B) M254~a M301# |M296+M296| M057# , [...] [...] M352~n M218 |M106+M288| M066 , 2(N39B)# [...] , [...] 1(N39B) M318~a M066 M320 M390 M285~c [...] , [...] M063~d M001~b , 1(N14) 4(N39B)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 0249. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009177) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009177..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.