Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 5037
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009280.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] M371 M387 M009 M264~a1 , 3(N01)# [...] M066# M066 |M036+1(N30D)| , 5(N01) M146 [...] , [...] [...] , 1(N01) |M305+M320| [...] M260~1 , 1(N01) |M036+1(N30D)| , 2(N01)#? [...] M297# , 2(N01) 1(N39B) 2(N30C)#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 5037. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009280) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009280..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.