Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 4805
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009240.
Why it matters
Transliteration
M051~b# M264~a , 1(N01) M262~ba# , 1(N01) [...] , 1(N24)# 2(N30C) M051~b# M263~b , 1(N01) [...] , 5(N01) M033~b M048~c M263~b#? , 3(N01) |M036+1(N30D)| , 1(N14) |M305+X|? M388#? M009 M004 M218 M263~b1 , 1(N01) |M036+1(N30D)| , 5(N01) M297~b# , 1(N01) 4(N39B) 1(N24)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 4805. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009240) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009240..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.