Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 4790
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009227.
Why it matters
Transliteration
M157~a# , M305# x , 1(N14) M096# M112 M136~c M263~b1 , 1(N01) M305# [...] M260 , 1(N01) |M036+1(N30D)|# , 5(N01) M111~b M388 [...] , [...] |M036+1(N30D)|# , 5(N01) x [...] , [...] |M036+1(N30D)|# , 5(N01) [...] , [...] x |M036+1(N30D)|# , 1(N01)#? x , 1(N01)# M297 , 1(N01) 2(N39B) 2(N30C) 1(N30D) 1(N39C) 1(N34)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 4790. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009227) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009227..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.